333934
Case Management of Malaria: A review and qualitative assessment of social and behavior change communication strategies in four countries
Michael Toso, MSH,
HC3 Project, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, Baltimore, MD
Background: With the introduction and growing availability of combination therapy and rapid diagnostic tests, case management of malaria has evolved and expanded in scope. Social and behavior change communication (SBCC) activities have been developed to influence prompt care seeking behavior, adherence to test results, and completion of full treatment regimens. This review describes SBCC programming, and the extent to which it has been evaluated for impact, in Zambia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Senegal. Methods: An initial research review, including research articles, country level documents, and project reports, was followed by qualitative research involving a series of semi-structured key informant interviews with National Malaria Control Program officers, Presidents Malaria Initiative resident advisors, and SBCC implementing partner staff. Results: The review identified one study demonstrating the statistically significant impact of an SBCC intervention, and describes several programs with promising practices. Key informant interviews revealed country-specific concerns related to the coordination of messaging and process of program and materials development. No examples of SBCC interventions targeting service providers or community health workers were discovered. Conclusions: Examples of SBCC malaria case management programming that have been evaluated for impact are rare. While commonplace in other health disciplines, malaria, and malaria case management in particular, suffers from a lack of rigorous SBCC program design and evaluation. This review provides recommendations to improve evidence-based program design and impact evaluation.
Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Social and behavioral sciences
Learning Objectives:
Evaluate different methods of evaluating social and behavior change programs.
Compare different types of impact evaluation, based on the scale and focus of a given social and behavior change program.
Keyword(s): Behavioral Research, Health Promotion and Education
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been involved in the design and implementation of social and behavior change programs in three countries. I have first-hand knowledge and experience with malaria program implementation at the community, facility, and country level. In my previous post I worked directly with the National Malaria Control Program of Senegal and President's Malaria Initiative resident advisors.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
