Assistant Professor (Community Medicine),
Dr. B. C. Roy Multi-Speciality Medical Research Centre,
School of Biological Sciences,
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Title of the project (Young Malaria Researcher): Facilitating Appropriate Community Behavior for Prevention, Early Diagnosis, and Treatment of Malaria in Selected Tribal Areas of West Bengal through Technology-driven Social Mobilization Intervention.
Summary:
Background: Malaria is a major public health problem in India which is preventable and curable. Social Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) including community mobilization plays a critical role in addressing all the behavioral and social aspects of disease prevention.
Novelty: Implementation of SBCC for Malaria prevention in tribal dominated malaria prone areas is a novel intervention. Developing geo-spatial behavioral map will be an innovation in this context.
Objectives: The study will implement, and evaluate a SBCC program to improve behavior and practices related to malaria prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment through community mobilization. The study will also aim to develop geospatial behavioral map for tracking community behaviors in this regard.
Methods: An embedded mixed-methods interventional study will be conducted in the rural areas of two tribal dominated districts of West Bengal. The quantitative part of the study will be a cluster randomized intervention with 101 villages (3020 individuals) in each intervention and control arm. The qualitative part regarding the facilitators and barriers of Malaria prevention, early diagnosis and treatment in the selected communities, will be embedded before the intervention. After a baseline survey among the respondents regarding behavior of Malaria prevention, early diagnosis and treatment the SBCC intervention will be implemented through community mobilization. A GIS-map of the surveyed behavior will be prepared. Post-intervention survey will evaluate the effectiveness of SBCC intervention and also analyze different decision values for the behavioral map.
Expected outcomes: The main outcome of this project will be an efficient SBCC intervention, that will help in intensifying the Malaria preventive behaviors including early diagnosis and treatment of Malaria in rural communities. The GIS-based system with decision values developed as part of the project will be useful for incorporation in the National program also.
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