"Innovative mobile health (mHealth) interventions can improve maternal knowledge, thereby supporting national efforts to reduce preventable maternal and child mortality in South Africa. Studies have documented a potential role for mobile video content to support perinatal health messaging, enhance m
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aternal satisfaction, and overcome literacy barriers. Short, animated storytelling (SAS) is an innovative, emerging approach to mHealth messaging. Objective: We aimed to measure the effect of SAS videos on maternal knowledge and user satisfaction for mothers enrolled in antenatal care programs at 2 public health facilities in the Tshwane District of South Africa. Methods: We used a randomized controlled trial with a nested evaluation of user satisfaction. Participants were randomized 1:1 into Standard-of-Care (SOC) Control, and SAS Intervention groups. The intervention videos were delivered through WhatsApp, and 1 month later, participants responded to telephone surveys assessing their knowledge. The intervention group then participated in a nested evaluation of user satisfaction [...] Conclusions: While the SAS videos resulted in high user satisfaction, measured knowledge gains were small within a participant population that was already receiving perinatal health messages through antenatal clinics. The higher knowledge scores observed in older participants with higher education levels suggest that boosting maternal knowledge in younger mothers with lower education levels should continue to be a public health priority in South Africa. Given the high maternal satisfaction among the SAS video-users in this study, policy makers should consider integrating similar approaches into existing, broad-reaching perinatal health programs, such as MomConnect, to boost satisfaction and potentially enhance maternal engagement. While previous studies have shown the promise of animated video health education, most of this research has been conducted in high-income countries. More research in underresourced settings is urgently needed, especially as access to mobile technology increases in the Global South. Future studies should explore the effect of SAS videos on maternal knowledge in hard-to-reach populations with limited access to antenatal care, although real-world logistical challenges persist when implementing studies in underresourced South African populations." (Abstract)
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"Objectives: To examine the association between exposure to breastfeeding television spots and exclusive breastfeeding (EBF). Methods: We performed face-to-face interviews with 11 722 mothers of infants younger than 6 months using 5 cross-sectional surveys 6 or more months apart between 2011 and 201
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4 in Vietnam. Sample sizes were 2065 to 2593, and approximately 50% of participants lived in areas with (Alive & Thrive [A&T]-intensive [I]) and approximately 50% without (A&T-nonintensive [NI]) facilities offering counseling services. We analyzed data at individual and commune levels separately for A&T-I and A&T-NI areas. Results: Exposure to television spots was associated with higher EBF in A&T-I and A&T-NI areas. In A&T-I areas, mothers who could recall at least 1 message were more likely to report EBF. In A&T-NI areas, only recall of at least 3 messages was associated with higher EBF. In communes, 1 message recalled corresponded to 17 percentage points higher EBF prevalence in A&T-I and A&T-NI communes, respectively. Conclusions: Mass media should be part of comprehensive programs to promote EBF." (Abstract)
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"Kilkari is the largest direct-to-beneficiary mobile communication programme in the world and has reached over 10 million women and their families across 13 states in India. Our study is the first randomised controlled trial conducted to date of a beneficiary mobile communication programme at scale.
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Exposure to Kilkari was significantly associated with improvements in a few important health practices, including the use of reversible contraceptive methods, but not others, including exclusive breast feeding. Subgroup analyses highlight the differential impact among key population segments, including the poorest." (Page 2)
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"This book explores case studies across India, Kenya, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, and global, comparative settings, and asks what positive impact ICT applications (Health Information Systems, Pandemic response systems, Early Warning and Response Systems, Hospital Information System and Smartphone based Ap
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ps) can have on today’s most pressing challenges. The authors use this lens to discuss a wide range of issues facing communities around the world, including public health and pandemic management; the mitigation of ethnic violence and violence against women; the emergence of an informal economy; and the displacement of refugees. The case studies are analyzed through a wide means-process-ends framework, which is complemented with micro-level observations of people’s experience, such as empowerment, agility and trust within communities. This interplay between the macro framework and micro concepts helps us to understand how and why digital interventions can contribute to positive outcomes, and which stories of hope may inspire other development channels." (Back cover)
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"This report presents the findings from the evaluation of the ASTUTE media campaign. Three cross-sectional surveys were conducted before, during, and at the end of the campaign, with questions targeted to female caregivers and male heads of households when they were available. The impact of the camp
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aign is estimated by looking at change in key indicators over time (an uncontrolled before-and-after analysis) as well as the association of indicators with reported campaign exposure (cross-sectional analysis at endline). Primary and secondary outcomes were pre-specified for each of the message themes prior to analysis. Over 21,000 men and women with children under two were surveyed across the three timepoints, and the majority of participants reported exposure to the campaign. At endline, 60% of female caregivers and 70% of men had heard or seen spots on the radio or TV. While exposure was even higher among regular radio listeners, the campaign still reached over 40% of individuals who did not report listening regularly. This high level of campaign exposure translated to large impacts across several of the programme themes. The strongest, most consistent evidence for impact was observed for engagement in early childhood development-related activities (for both men and women), for outcomes relating to maternal health and nutrition (including antenatal care attendance) and for WASH indicators. Exclusive breastfeeding indicators also improved over the time period of the campaign, and by the end of the campaign the prevalence of positive outcomes for the majority of breastfeeding indicators had reached a high level (>90%) such that the campaign may have had limited ability to achieve further improvements. Complementary feeding indicators also improved over the time span of the campaign. However the proportions of children receiving the target minimum meal frequency and minimum acceptable diet by the end of the campaign remained low with limited evidence that exposure to the campaign had had a substantial impact on these indicators." (Executive summary)
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"Kilkari is one of the largest maternal mobile messaging programmes in the world. It makes weekly prerecorded calls to new and expectant mothers and their families from the fourth month of pregnancy until 1-year post partum. The programme delivers reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health in
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formation directly to subscribers’ phones. However, little is known about the reach of Kilkari among different subgroups in the population, or the differentiated benefits of the programme among these subgroups. In this analysis, we assess differentials in eligibility, enrolment, reach, exposure and impact across well-known proxies of socioeconomic position—that is, education, caste and wealth. Data are drawn from a randomised controlled trial (RCT) in Madhya Pradesh, India, including call data records from Kilkari subscribers in the RCT intervention arm, and the National Family Health Survey-4, 2015. The analysis identifies that disparities in household phone ownership and women’s access to phones create inequities in the population eligible to receive Kilkari, and that among enrolled Kilkari subscribers, marginalised caste groups and those without education are under-represented. An analysis of who is left behind by such interventions and how to reach those groups through alternative communication channels and platforms should be undertaken at the intervention design phase to set reasonable expectations of impact. Results suggest that exposure to Kilkari has improved levels of some health behaviours across marginalised groups but has not completely closed pre-existing gaps in indicators such as wealth and education." (Abstract)
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"Information and Communication Technology interventions have the potential to improve outcomes in health and other development sectors in low-income settings. Large-scale impact, however, remains the central challenge for the HCI4D community as significant and diverse resources are typically require
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d to scale such interventions beyond the pilot stage. In contrast, voice-based entertainment services accessible over simple phones, designed for similarly low-income, low-literate populations manage to scale ‘virally’ to tens of thousands of users with little to no advertising cost. Our study compares the outcomes of using voice-based entertainment to spread a maternal-health hotline against conventional advertisement channels including paper flyers, posters, radio, TV, social media and robocalls. Through an 11-week deployment in Pakistan where the hotline reached 21,770 users over 32,625 calls, we find that the entertainment service outperformed other channels on all popular user acquisition metrics, with the exception of robocalls, which lead in terms of spread." (Abstract)
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"This compendium of 15 SBCC cases presents results and learning from the Communication for Development (C4D) cross-sectoral interventions from 15 states of India – all implemented during the country programme 2013- 2017. Additionally, a national level C4D Results Report ‘Resonating Change’ has
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also been compiled." (Summary note, page 6)
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"El proyecto nace a partir de la desnutrición infantil que se evidencian en poblaciones vulnerables de Colombia, tomando como referente a Bucaramanga para la realización de este con el objetivo de investigar cómo los medios de comunicación informan dicha problemática. En el trabajo de campo se
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realizaron: Grupos focales en el barrio Don Bosco y Santander, encuestas en el Instituto Técnico Superior Dámaso Zapata y Colegio Franciscano del Virrey Solís de Bucaramanga. De igual forma, se llevaron a cabo entrevistas y grupos focales con periodistas de diferentes medios de comunicación de la región y entrevistas a candidatos de las elecciones legislativas. Los diseños metodológicos utilizados fueron: Crítico (Creswell, 2005) Sistemático (Corbin y Strauss, 2007), Realista o mixto (Creswell, 2005), Codificación Selectiva (Corbin y Strauss, 2007), Etnográfica de corte transversal (Joyceen Boyle en Álvarez-Gayou, 2003) y Diseño narrativo (Creswell, 2005). Como resultado final se concluyó que los medios de comunicación no abarcan la problemática de desnutrición infantil en Bucaramanga, únicamente se centran en el ámbito de la corrupción y sus consecuencias. En este caso, quienes se ven afectados son los niños al dejar de recibir los alimentos estipulados por el gobierno según el Plan de Alimentación Escolar (PAE)." (Resumen)
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"The purpose of this document is to provide guidance for anyone involved in humanitarian assistance who produces communications on behalf of an organisation (e.g. press releases, social media, fund raising appeals) or engages with the media (e.g. interviews). It aims to support communications expert
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s to provide accurate information that protects and supports infants and young children and their caregivers and reduces harmful interventions." (Page 1)
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"Media campaigns can potentially reach a large audience at relatively low cost but, to our knowledge, no randomised controlled trials have assessed their effect on a health outcome in a low-income country. We aimed to assess the effect of a radio campaign addressing family behaviours on all-cause po
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st-neonatal under-5 child mortality in rural Burkina Faso [...] A comprehensive radio campaign had no detectable effect on child mortality. Substantial decreases in child mortality were observed in both groups over the intervention period, reducing our ability to detect an effect. This, nevertheless, represents the first randomised controlled trial to show that mass media alone can change healthseeking behaviours." (Summary)
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"Exploring Journalism Practice and Perception in Developing Countries is a crucial reference source for the latest scholarly material on the impacts of development journalism on contemporary nations and the media’s responsibility to inform citizens of government and non-government activities. High
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lighting a range of pertinent topics such as media regulation, freedom of expression, and new media technology, this book is ideally designed for researchers, academics, professionals, policy makers, and students interested in the role of journalist endeavors in developing nations." (Publisher description)
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"Drawing on BBC Media Action’s work on maternal and child health with governmental and non-governmental partners in Bangladesh, India and Ethiopia, this paper discusses: the value of these partnerships for successful health communication; the part played by media and communication in wider health
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interventions; ways to include those without access to mass media; how to spark discussions that underpin journeys of change; the best techniques for working together to produce long-lasting results. It concludes that by working together from the outset, media organisations and others working to improve people’s health can help support each other to ensure that health communication reaches its full potential to change lives." (BBC Media Action website)
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"Este libro relata la gestión de la campaña de lucha contra la desnutrición infantil realizada por el Grupo RPP y difundida de forma ininterrumpida a traves de su principal emisora radial, desde el 2006 hasta el 2010. Dicha experiencia representó una apuesta empresarial donde se evidenció que l
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as campañas sociales bien estructuradas, que reciben el compromiso de alta dirección de la institución y logran el involucramiento de los grupos de interés, pueden llegar a ser una eficiente estrategia de responsabilidad social a mediano plazo." (Editorial)
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"Study findings indicate that community videos aid spousal communication in support of maternal, infant, and young child nutrition (MIYCN) behaviors even if husbands do not attend the disseminations. The visual presentation of MIYCN messages improved the transmission of information, which then facil
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itated communication between the husband and wife. Community members and family members confirmed these findings; they indicated that community video is a promising approach for strengthening spousal communication on important health issues." (Conclusion, page 3)
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"Following decades of civil war, South Sudan still lacks a functioning healthcare system and has some of the worst maternal and child health indicators in the world. To help address this, between 2012 and 2017 BBC Media Action produced and broadcast a range of national radio programmes seeking to in
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fluence knowledge, attitudes, discussion and the social norms most likely to drive improvements in the RMNCH-related behaviours of women and their families. It also worked to strengthen the capacity of local radio stations to produce similar high-quality, audience-driven health programming. This report presents a synthesis of all research and analysis completed under this project. In brief, it finds that the challenging country context (e.g. the limited availability of quality healthcare nationally and the ongoing humanitarian crisis) limited the extent to which the project was able to contribute to improved health outcomes. Despite this, audiences were generally optimistic about the shows’ influence and value, and reported gaining knowledge and making some behavioural changes as a result of tuning in. Likewise, local radio station partners reported that the capacity-strengthening support had improved their technical skills, editorial confidence and engagement with audiences." (BBC Media Action website)
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"Through an action media methodology, various participatory, grassroots, and traditional media methods, such as role plays, movie screenings, and drawing, were used with eight HIV-positive children to empower them to collectively respond to better treatment adherence. The paper demonstrates how, thr
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ough a process of participatory methodologies, the young children developed a cricital consciousness about their lived experiences and were empowered to actively participate in decision making and their right to treatment." (Abstract)
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"Many people recognise that mass media is important in promoting public health but there have been few attempts to measure how important. An ongoing trial in Burkina Faso (ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01517230) is an attempt to bring together the very different worlds of mass media and epidemiology: to me
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asure rigorously, using a cluster-randomised design, how many lives mass media can save in a low-income country, and at what cost. Application of the Lives Saved Tool predicts that saturation-based media campaigns could reduce child mortality by 10–20%, at a cost per disability-adjusted life-year that is as low as any existing health intervention. In this Viewpoint we explain the scientific reasoning behind the trial, while stressing the importance of the media methodology used." (Abstract)
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