Abstract
BackgroundWith more than two billion people infected worldwide, soil-transmitted helminths (STH) are the most widespread infections. To date, STH control efforts rely predominantly on recurrent mass drug administration (MDA), which does not prevent reinfection. Additional public health measures including novel health educational tools are required for more sustained integrated control of STH. We describe the development of an educational cartoon video (The Magic Glasses) targeting STH infections in Chinese schoolchildren and its pilot testing in China.We applied an extensive community-based mixed methods approach involving input from the target group of 9–10 year old schoolchildren and key informants, such as teachers, doctors and parents, in order to identify potential STH infection risks in the study area and to formulate key messages for the cartoon. The development of the educational cartoon included three major steps: formative research, production, and pilot testing and revision.ResultsWe found that most adults and approximately 50% of the schoolchildren were aware of roundworm (Ascaris) infection, but knowledge of transmission, prevention and treatment of STH was poor. Observations in the study area showed that unhygienic food practices, such as eating raw and unwashed fruit or playing in vegetable gardens previously fertilised with human faeces, posed major STH infection risks.ConclusionsIt was crucial to assess the intellectual, emotional, social and cultural background of the target population prior to video production in order to integrate the key messages of the cartoon into everyday situations. Overall, our strategy for the development of the cartoon and its incorporation into a health education package proved successful, and we provide a summary of recommendations for the development of future educational videos based on our experiences in China.
Highlights
With more than two billion people infected worldwide, soil-transmitted helminths (STH) are the most widespread infections
The results of the formative research including risk factor assessment are structured according to thematic groups of importance for the development of the cartoon
Formative research Knowledge Of the STHs, Ascaris was the most well known with 90% (95% CI (67–100) of adults and 51% (CI = 47–56) of schoolchildren, and all health and medical staff having heard of this parasite
Summary
With more than two billion people infected worldwide, soil-transmitted helminths (STH) are the most widespread infections. We describe the development of an educational cartoon video (The Magic Glasses) targeting STH infections in Chinese schoolchildren and its pilot testing in China. Soil-transmitted helminths are intimately associated with rural poverty, inadequate sanitation and waste disposal, lack of clean water and poor hygiene, as well as limited access to health care and preventive measures through health education. These worms comprise the most common of the 17 major neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) which cause disabling chronic infections globally [3]. Additional public health measures, such as health education, are required to augment MDA for sustained integrated control of these intestinal worms leading to their elimination
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