Impact of an IEC (Information, Education and Communication) intervention on key family practices of mothers related to child health in Jamshoro, Sindh

OBJECTIVE To determine change in practice of mothers having children less than five years of age in five key areas related to child health, growth and development including immunization, feeding during illness, appropriate home treatment for infections and care seeking behavior. METHODS This was a community based interventional study of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) intervention in the UC Jamshoro, Taluka Kotri, district Jamshoro of 15 months duration from March 2011 to June 2012. Ninety five mothers having children less than five years of age were selected by systematic random sampling for house hold based survey by questionnaire designed by EPP evaluation and health section of UNICEF during baseline and post-intervention phases. Base line data was collected from the interventional area then health education messages were given through written and pictorial material by LHWs for 9 months. To measure the impact helath education messages, data was again collected by same questionnaire are from the same union council during post-intervention phase. RESULTS During baseline survey except immunization all other key family practices were poor. After 9 months of intervention of repeated heath education sessions through LHW during their routine visits all practices were improved with statistically significant difference. Regarding the comparison of the results between baseline and post-intervention surveys we found that except immunization which was already better, all those practices which requires mother's knowledge and practice were improved after our intervention with significant P-values. CONCLUSIONS Improving the mother's education level is very important, to empower the first care provider of child in the community. However, in the mean time, health educational messages related to the limited number of key family practices should be disseminated.