Neighbor-to-neighbor education to improve malaria treatment in households in Bungoma district, Kenya | USAID Health Care Improvement Portal
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Neighbor-to-neighbor education to improve malaria treatment in households in Bungoma district, Kenya

Author(s): 
Tavrow P | Rennie W
Organization: Quality Assurance Project/URC

Topics: Malaria, Malaria treatment in adults, Malaria treatment in children

Region and Country: Africa, Sub Saharan, Kenya

Year: 
2004
Language: 
English
Description: 

This study's main objective was to determine the impact of a low-cost outreach "neighbor-to-neighbor" (jirani kwa jirani or JKJ) education program on caretaker purchase and consumption of antimalarial drugs in Bungoma District, Kenya. The Bungoma District Health Management Team (DHMT) implemented this intervention with technical support from the Quality Assurance Project (QAP) and facilitation from the African Medical Research and Education Foundation (AMREF). The intervention was intended to complement another intervention to improve anti-malarial prescribing practices of drug sellers in the same district (vendor-to-vendor; see Tavrow et al. 2002 and 2003). Forty MOH extension health workers (EHWs) received a one-day orientation from the DHMT on the JKJ approach and several copies of two illustrated brochures explaining proper malaria treatment and recommended drugs. About 30 EHWs then led a pyramid distribution of the brochures in 112 villages. They also organized 30 contests where village residents presented songs, dramas, or poems they had created to promote the use of effective anti-malarial drugs. The DHMT and public health officers, who directly supervise the EHWs, monitored the intervention during the six- to eight-week implementation period. (excerpt)