Can Mass Media Campaigns Reduce Child Mortality

Overview

A cluster-randomised trial will be undertaken in Burkina Faso to investigate whether a comprehensive mass media campaign using local radio stations can change behaviours on a scale large enough to result in measurable and sustainable reductions in under-five child mortality. It is hypothesised that as a result of the scale and multi-pronged nature of the campaign, reductions of between 10% and 20% in child mortality will be achieved.

The evaluation is conducted in 14 geographical locations throughout Burkina Faso. Seven of these 14 clusters have been randomly allocated to receive the mass media intervention while the remaining 7 clusters will serve as controls. Data collection includes household surveys in all 14 clusters at three "key" times: * At baseline: Before the implementation of the intervention, between December 2011 and February 2012 to measure the current level of child mortality and evaluate current knowledge and behaviours of relevance to child health. * At midline: Fifteen months after implementation of the intervention to evaluate the coverage of the intervention (in the intervention clusters) and, in each cluster, knowledge and behaviours. * At endline: Two and a half years after implementation of the intervention to evaluate intervention coverage (in the intervention clusters), knowledge and behaviours and child mortality.

Conditions