The research will test the hypothesis that a scalable behaviour change intervention can improve hand-washing practices in rural Indian households. The intervention will be designed using a social marketing approach and will use motivational messages targeting key audiences rather than educational messages about germs and disease which previously have been found ineffective. The intervention will be designed for low-cost, scaleable delivery using a series of visits to target villages by a two-person team on a motorbike. The key goal of the study is to determine the effectiveness of a scaleable, social marketing intervention to promote hand-washing with soap. The study will take the form of a cluster-randomized, controlled intervention trial. Villages will be randomized to receive either the intervention or no intervention. The primary outcome measure will be the proportion of key events (defecation, faecal contact or food handling) accompanied by hand-washing with soap. These data will be collected by direct observation. A secondary outcome measure will be the number of soap movement episodes. These data will be collected in a sub-sample of households by using electronic motion detectors embedded in bars of soap. Additionally, questionnaires will be used to collect data on social norms, self-reported soap use and habitual soap use. All data will be collected pre and post-intervention.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
1,747
social marketing campaign delivered over 4 weeks in 4 separate sessions
St. John's Research Institute
Palamener, Andhra Pradesh, India
Handwashing with soap directly observed
cross sectional survey using direct observation of householders by local study staff
Time frame: one months after interventions is terminated
Soap use measured by motion detectors embedded in soap bars
Time frame: soap movements over one week one month after assessment of the primary outcome
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