Change in Child-feeding Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices With Nutrition Education Mass Media in Ghana

Summary

Optimal infant and young child feeding practices are largely inadequate in rural and poor households in Ghana. Child welfare clinics (CWCs) focus on immunization, supplementation, and growth monitoring and promotion (GMP) activities among infants and young children (IYC). An essential component of GMP activities is to counsel mothers to practice optimal IYC feeding and health practices, but most of the time this is completely missing or not specific enough to be effective.

This study will test the effect of a mass media nutrition education program on caregiver infant and young child feeding knowledge, attitudes and practices using a community-based cluster randomized design. Formative research will first be undertaken to determine the beliefs, attitudes, and constraints that prevent caregivers from adequately feeding their infants and young children with members of the community (caregivers with children under-five, men and elderly women).The information gathered will then be used to design specific messages that directly address the IYC feeding challenges of the community. Clusters will be randomized into active (radio messages with in-person engagement and follow-up) and passive (only radio messages) arms of the intervention. Farm Radio International (implementers of the mass media programming) will ensure the regular broadcast of twice weekly messages for a period of about 12-18 months.

Conditions

• Health Education, Community
• Diet, Food, and Nutrition
• Malnutrition
• Infant Nutritional Sciences

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Active mass media approach

Communities will be exposed to twice weekly radio programming for up to 18 months. Interactive voice response systems (IVRS) will be promoted where listeners can chose to receive pre-recorded audio/voice messages or text messages on mobile phones. Messages will be consistent with the weekly radio program. The topic of the radio program will be discussed in monthly open community meetings. Each individual may choose to participate or not to listen to the radio program, receive the IVRS system, and attend monthly meetings.

BEHAVIORAL

Passive mass media approach

These communities will be exposed to twice weekly radio programming for up to 18 months only.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Global Affairs Canada

  collaborator OTHER

• World Vision

  collaborator OTHER

• McGill University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Grace S Marquis, PhD · McGill University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-04-01

Primary Completion

2018-02-28

Completion

2018-02-28

Countries

• Canada
• Ghana

Study Locations