To Improve the Household Management of Diarrhea

Abstract

Diarrheal disease is one of the leading causes of infant and child morbidity and mortality worldwide. Developed in the 1960s, oral rehydration salt solutions (ORS) were a major technological advance, offering a practical alternative to intravenous therapy for treatment of dehydration. Subsequently, ORS in prepacked sachets (or various home prepared solutions, such as sugar-salt solution or cereal-based solutions) have been promoted worldwide for home and clinic treatment of diarrhea. Yet early efforts to promote ORS, often through sophisticated social marketing and mass media programs, showed that increasing public awareness of diarrheal disease and the benefits of ORS did not necessarily lead to the desired behavior change—the effective and sustained use of ORS. (See, for example, M. K. Nations and L. A. Rebhun, "Mystification of a Simple Solution: Oral Rehydration Therapy in Northeast Brazil," Social Science and Medicine 27[1988]:25-38.) Apparently, the "simple solution" is not quite so simple.