Intervention to Change Handwashing Behaviour in India

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Handwashing; Hygiene; Behaviour
• Interventions: Behavioral: social marketing campaign

• Registration Number: NCT04929860
• Lead Sponsor: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Brief Summary

The research will test the hypothesis that a scalable behaviour change intervention can improve hand-washing practices in rural Indian households. The intervention will be designed using a social marketing approach and will use motivational messages targeting key audiences rather than educational messages about germs and disease which previously have been found ineffective. The intervention will be designed for low-cost, scaleable delivery using a series of visits to target villages by a two-person team on a motorbike. The key goal of the study is to determine the effectiveness of a scaleable, social marketing intervention to promote hand-washing with soap.

The study will take the form of a cluster-randomized, controlled intervention trial. Villages will be randomized to receive either the intervention or no intervention. The primary outcome measure will be the proportion of key events (defecation, faecal contact or food handling) accompanied by hand-washing with soap. These data will be collected by direct observation. A secondary outcome measure will be the number of soap movement episodes. These data will be collected in a sub-sample of households by using electronic motion detectors embedded in bars of soap. Additionally, questionnaires will be used to collect data on social norms, self-reported soap use and habitual soap use. All data will be collected pre and post-intervention.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Status Verified: 2011-06
• Study Start: 2011-07
• Primary Completion: 2012-02
• Study Completion: 2012-04
• Study First Submitted: 2021-06-10
• Study First Submitted QC: 2021-06-16
• Last Update Submitted: 2021-06-16
• Study First Posted: 2021-06-18
• Last Update Posted: 2021-06-18

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 1747

Inclusion Criteria

• households with children of primary school age or younger

Exclusion Criteria

• households without school-aged or younger children

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
handwashing	social marketing campaign	This arm receives a scalable social marketing campaign using innovative behaviour change approaches to improve handwashing. The intervention is delivered by a commercial social marketing business unrelated to the investigating organisations

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Handwashing with soap directly observed	one months after interventions is terminated	cross sectional survey using direct observation of householders by local study staff

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Soap use measured by motion detectors embedded in soap bars	soap movements over one week one month after assessment of the primary outcome

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

St. John's Research Institute; 🇮🇳 Palamener, Andra Pradesh, India