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NEWS ALERTS | ‘SuperAmma’ drive alters handwashing behaviour in rural Andhra
‘SuperAmma’ drive alters handwashing behaviour in rural Andhra

‘SuperAmma’ drive alters handwashing behaviour in rural Andhra

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published Published on Mar 11, 2014   modified Modified on Mar 11, 2014
Until recently it had been an enigma for health practitioners to understand why people do not wash their hands before dinner or after defecation despite knowing the health hazards or benefits associated with it. An experimental study conducted in 14 villages in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh shows that emotional campaigns can work wonders and decisively change behaviours. The study was conducted between May 24, 2011, and September 10, 2012 whose outcome got published in a paper at the prestigious Lancet Global Health Journal (March 2014). It was observed that substantial increases in handwashing with soap can be achieved using a scalable intervention based on emotional drivers (see the links below).    

 
At baseline i.e. before any intervention, it was found that despite having access to piped water, usage of soap for handwashing at key events (i.e. after defecating, before food handling, or after cleaning a child) was extremely rare in all the 14 villages. Under the present study, drawing on the emotional drivers disgust (the desire to avoid and remove contamination), nurture (the desire for a happy, thriving child), affiliation (the desire to fit in) and status (the desire to have greater access to resources than others), interventions* (including community and school-based events incorporating an animated film, skits, and public pledging ceremonies) were made in 7 non-control villages, which yielded desired outcome vis-à-vis the control villages (7 in nos.) as well as the baseline situation. It must be mentioned here that the use of emotional drivers is quite different from the conventional health risk messaging that public campaigns often tend to use.

Among the key findings, handwashing with soap at key events was rare at baseline in both the intervention (1 percent) and control groups (2 percent). However, at 6 weeks' follow-up, handwashing with soap at key events was more common in the intervention group (19%) than in the control group (4%). At 6 months' follow-up, compliance in the intervention group had increased to 37 percent as compared with 6 percent in the control group. At the 12-month follow-up visit, after the control villages had received the shortened intervention, the proportion of handwashing with soap was 29 percent in both the intervention and control groups. Although the intervention mainly targeted women and school-aged children, it was also successful at changing the handwashing practices of men.

The combination of the 2-day SuperAmma intervention with the use of mass media to increase the reach and frequency of contact achieved by the animated film and key campaign messages creates a new hope on upscaling such efforts, surmises the study entitled: Effect of a behaviour-change intervention on handwashing with soap in India (SuperAmma): a cluster-randomised trial. The findings indicate that innovative interventions based on drivers of behaviour change can be effective and potentially scalable.

It worth noting that as per the UNICEF's Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed Progress Report 2013, in the year 2012, 10 percent deaths among Indian children under 5 years of age occurred due to diarrhoea. However, handwashing could substantially reduce diarrhoea, stresses the present study on SuperAmma campaign.

How was the handwashing experiment conducted?

A number of steps were undertaken to conduct what is scientifically called a cluster-randomised trial. In order to assess the impact of behaviour-change intervention on handwashing with soap, initially 7 villages were assigned to receive the intervention; 7 control villages received no intervention. The selected villages ranged in size from 732 to 1857 people (median 962). At baseline there were 175 households in the seven intervention villages and 173 in the seven control villages. As per the study, outcomes were measured by observers who had no connection with the intervention. Observers were not told that the study was assessing an intervention and the intervention was never mentioned to the observers. To minimise the effect of the presence of the observers on behaviour, observers and participant households were told that this was a study of domestic water use.
 
The trial was funded by the Wellcome Trust. This study and the development of the intervention was funded by the Wellcome Trust and UK aid from the Department of International Development as part of the SHARE research programme.
 
Note:

* Multi-component intervention comprised community-based and school-based events including an animated film about a savvy rural mother (“SuperAmma”) who teaches her beloved son hand hygiene as part of good manners; comedy plays about SuperAmma and a disgusting uncle; public support by community leaders; and posters and stickers for householders who formally pledged to practice handwashing with soap at key events


References:

http://www.superamma.org/

SuperAmma Campaign, The Lancet TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alEVrtBGYyw
 
Effect of a behaviour-change intervention on handwashing with soap in India (SuperAmma): a cluster-randomised trial by Dr Adam Biran, Wolf-Peter Schmidt, Kiruba Sankar Varadharajan, Divya Rajaraman, Raja Kumar, Katie Greenland, Balaji Gopalan, Robert Aunger and Val Curtis, The Lancet Global Health, Volume 2, Issue 3, Pages e145 - e154, March 2014, doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(13)70160-8 (please click here to download)
 
Is it a vaccine? Is it a drug? No, it's SuperAmma! -Zoë Mullan, The Lancet Global Health, Volume 2, Issue 3, Page e117, March 2014
 
Emotional messaging changes handwashing behaviour-Divya Gandhi, The Hindu, 27 February, 2014  

Can ‘Supermums’ make kids wash their hands more – and help save lives? -Aoife Barry, TheJournal.ie, Feb 26, 2014, http://uk.news.yahoo.com/supermums-kids-wash-hands-more-he
lp-save-lives-121543167.html#38KaUVx


SuperAmma Successfully Changes Handwashing Behavior, Asian Scientist, 7 March, 2014,
http://www.asianscientist.com/health-medicine/superamma-ha
ndwashing-behavior-2014/
 

Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed Progress Report 2013, UNICEF, http://www.im4change.orghttps://im4change.in/siteadmin/tin
ymce//uploaded/APR_Progress_Report_2013_9_Sept_2013_1.pdf


Simple hand-washing with soap can cut hundreds of thousands of deaths a year, UN says, The United Nations, 15 October, 2013, http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/simple-hand-w
ashing-with-soap-can-cut-hundreds-of-thousands-of-deaths-a
-year-un-says-23029.html
 
Image Courtesy: The Lancet Global Health, Volume 2, Issue 3, Pages e145 -e154, March 2014, doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(13)70160-8 (please click here to download)


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