Intervention to Change Handwashing Behaviour in India

Hygiene Clinical Trial

Official title:

A Cluster Randomised Trial to Evaluate and Intervention to Change Handwashing Behaviour in Rural Indian Households

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04929860
• Other study ID #: WT-001
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: July 2011
• Est. completion date: April 2012

Study information

• Verified date: June 2011
• Source: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The research will test the hypothesis that a scalable behaviour change intervention can improve hand-washing practices in rural Indian households. The intervention will be designed using a social marketing approach and will use motivational messages targeting key audiences rather than educational messages about germs and disease which previously have been found ineffective. The intervention will be designed for low-cost, scaleable delivery using a series of visits to target villages by a two-person team on a motorbike. The key goal of the study is to determine the effectiveness of a scaleable, social marketing intervention to promote hand-washing with soap.

The study will take the form of a cluster-randomized, controlled intervention trial. Villages will be randomized to receive either the intervention or no intervention. The primary outcome measure will be the proportion of key events (defecation, faecal contact or food handling) accompanied by hand-washing with soap. These data will be collected by direct observation. A secondary outcome measure will be the number of soap movement episodes. These data will be collected in a sub-sample of households by using electronic motion detectors embedded in bars of soap. Additionally, questionnaires will be used to collect data on social norms, self-reported soap use and habitual soap use. All data will be collected pre and post-intervention.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 1747
• Est. completion date: April 2012
• Est. primary completion date: February 2012
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: N/A and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• households with children of primary school age or younger

Exclusion Criteria:

• households without school-aged or younger children

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Behaviour
• Handwashing
• Hygiene

Intervention

Behavioral:
• social marketing campaign
social marketing campaign delivered over 4 weeks in 4 separate sessions

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
India	St. John's Research Institute	Palamener	Andra Pradesh

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine	St. John's Research Institute

Country where clinical trial is conducted

India, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Handwashing with soap directly observed	cross sectional survey using direct observation of householders by local study staff	one months after interventions is terminated
Secondary	Soap use measured by motion detectors embedded in soap bars		soap movements over one week one month after assessment of the primary outcome