Analysis of different communication channels for promoting hygiene behaviour.

Reports a hygiene intervention study to reduce diarrheal disease in rural northeastern Thailand through promoting hand washing and dish washing. A variety of media was employed in 6 sub-districts of the Khon Kaen province to create awareness and promote behaviors in the general populace, including posters, stickers, leaflets, comic books, songs, T-shirts, badges, and a slide show. Schools were far more active in the program than villages. Results show a marked increase in dish-washing behavior and hand-washing behavior, as measured by the presence of transient faecal indicator bacteria in fingertip examination. School pupils (aged 6–12 yrs) demonstrated a significant increase in knowledge after presentations. There was an association between knowledge score and recall of media channels. Surprisingly, increased knowledge scores did not necessarily translate into improved hand- and dish-washing practices. Only those reporting school children as a message transmission medium showed significantly lower fingertip contamination. Data from in-depth interviews conducted 6 mo subsequently show that, although most knew the intervention messages adequately, the importance they attached to them differed markedly.