Process of developing education material on water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) and diarrhoea prevention and testing its acceptability among tribal mothers

Abstract

Abstract The study aimed to develop education material on WaSH practices and assess its content and acceptability. Online survey of 19 posters identified two Marathi posters that were not context- or setting-specific. A three-phased evaluation study was conducted to assess (i) WaSH practices of mothers attending an ANC centre (n = 40) and (ii) performed a quantitative content analysis of education material developed on WaSH (n = 38). Focus group discussions (FGDs) were employed for qualitative content analysis (n = 10). (iii) Acceptability was derived from the scores of quantitative content analysis. Relevance of content and use of fear appeal emerged as significant characteristics using qualitative content analysis. In quantitative content analysis, the maximum score for the domains pertaining to relevance and comprehension was 5 each and for the layout was 3. The mean scores for posters 1 and 2 were 4.34 ± 0.9 and 4.00 ± 1.1 for relevance; and 4.89 ± 0.3 and 4.95 ± 0.2 for comprehension, respectively. Acceptability ranging between 68 and 100% in all three domains for both the posters indicated high acceptability. Maximum acceptability score was obtained for comprehension followed by relevance and layout for both the posters. Tribal populations can benefit from these communication aids that are context- and setting-specific. These can be adopted with relevant cultural modifications to suit similar settings.