Promoting Handwashing Behavior in Peru : The Effect of Large-Scale Mass-Media and Community Level Interventions
This paper analyzes a randomized experiment that uses novel strategies to promote handwashing with soap at critical times in Peru. It evaluates a large-scale intervention that includes a mass media provincial campaign and a district-level community...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/11/16956626/promoting-handwashing-behavior-peru-effect-large-scale-mass-media-community-level-interventions http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19928 |
| Summary: | This paper analyzes a randomized
experiment that uses novel strategies to promote handwashing
with soap at critical times in Peru. It evaluates a
large-scale intervention that includes a mass media
provincial campaign and a district-level community
component. The analysis finds that the mass media
intervention alone had no significant effect on exposure to
the handwashing promotion campaign messages, and therefore
no effect on handwashing knowledge or handwashing behavior.
In contrast, the community-level intervention, a more
comprehensive intervention that included several community
and school activities in addition to the communications
campaign, was successful in reaching the target audience
with handwashing promotion messages and in improving the
knowledge of the treated population on appropriate
handwashing behavior. Those improvements translated into
higher self-reported and observed handwashing with soap at
critical junctures. However, no significant improvements in
the health of children under the age of five were observed.
The results are consistent with earlier literature, which
indicates that substantively changing behavior to improve
health is a complex task requiring intensive and more
personalized interventions. |
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