Health Literacy
Conditions
Keywords
digital health literacy, community healthcare workers, coronavirus, primary healthcare, maternal and child health
Brief summary
The aim is to deliver a digital health literacy intervention to disadvantaged women to improve their health behaviors with regard to (i) hygiene and sanitation, and (ii) coronavirus awareness and prevention in four provinces of Pakistan through women community health workers.
Detailed description
There is a need to continue primary healthcare services through digital communication for disadvantaged women living in underdeveloped areas of Pakistan, especially in the age of coronavirus pandemic, social distancing, and lockdown of communities. This project will be the first of its kind in aiming to provide women with a smartphone and digital access for a digital health literacy intervention through community healthcare workers. The majority of poor women in Pakistan who are dependent on primary health services: 1. suffer from health challenges more than men due to multiple social and structural disadvantages, 2. are the dominant care-providers and nurturers in the home, and 3. need support in understanding public health messages during health crises due to low health literacy and awareness. The digital health literacy intervention will be delivered in target two areas: (i) hygiene and sanitation, and (ii) coronavirus awareness and prevention. Women will be sampled from disadvantaged areas across the four provinces of Pakistan- Baluchistan, KPK, Punjab, and Sindh. A target of 1,000 women will comprise the sample with 500 women each assigned to the control and experiment group.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALDigital Health Literacy Intervention
Willing women participants will be provided equipment with instructions for the intervention, including a smartphone and a 4G Wifi gadget. The health literacy intervention, delivered to the experiment group, will last three months and will include a combination of the following four components: Component 1: Health literacy video tutorial. Component 2: Virtual one-on-one weekly meetings. Component 3: Monthly group virtual meetings and Whatsapp group. Component 4: Provision and guidance of a self-management chart.
Sponsors
doctHERs
Saglik Bilimleri Universitesi
Forman Christian College, Pakistan
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Masking description
No masking
Intervention model description
The control and experiment group will both be provided a hard-copy of a health literacy booklet and electronically administered the: (a) base-line survey, and (b) the pre-test survey and the post-test survey. The experiment group will receive a digital health literacy intervention in two target areas: (i) hygiene and sanitation, and (ii) coronavirus awareness and prevention.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Age
15 Years to 49 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Disadvantaged women dependent on primary healthcare services * Women of the reproductive age group, 15 years to 49 years
Exclusion criteria
* Women above 49 years
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Changes in health directed behavior | 3 months | A total of 135 questions will be used, with five domains being covered through the following surveys: (i) Health Education Impact Questionnaire, (ii) Survey on Hygiene Knowledge, Attitude and Practice, (iii) Homecare of Covid Survey, (iv) Survey for mobile u-Health program by Ahn, Bae, and Kim and (v) Women's Health Care Experiences Survey. It is a five-point Likert-type scale (strongly agree - agree - neutral - disagree - strongly disagree). The highest value of the scale is 6 and the lowest value is 1; with 6 points showing strong agreement with the item statement (E.g. Q80. We are cleaning the eating, drinking, and cooking utensil with dish detergent after every use). |
Countries
Pakistan
Outcome results
None listed