EFFICACY OF TELEMEDICINE IN REDUCING NEONATAL DEATHS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17501/24246735.2022.7109Keywords:
COVID-19, neonatal deaths, Kruskal-Wallis, telemedicineAbstract
The Community Health Education Initiative, inspired by a needs assessment
conducted in Uttar Pradesh, aimed to improve health education in a rural community by
addressing pertinent health topics. The primary focus was to create a self-sustainable
model in which local Women Educational Leaders (WELs) were trained by the research
team to educate their village on chosen health topics. A pilot study was conducted among
the high-school girls of Pardada Pardadi Educational Society. Our research team curated
and administered a multiple-choice questionnaire (A1) to assess baseline knowledge,
taught the material using educational handouts, and then administered the same
questionnaire (A2). There was a statistically significant improvement between A1 and A2,
demonstrating internal validity. This same initiative was then attempted among the
villagers with the WELs as educators and there was no statistically significant
improvement between A1 and A2, indicating poor knowledge retention of the learned
health topics. We believe this initiative’s effectiveness in the village was impacted by
multiple elements. Many villagers were unable to read/write Hindi, rendering educational
materials ineffective. In the future, utilizing pictorials and oral storytelling would likely be
more effective. The WELs were also uncomfortable teaching the men given the traditional
gender roles present in this society. One solution would be to reform WEL training to
overcome this barrier. It is important to recognize that despite how thorough the creation
of a multi-perspective program may be in theory, there will always be unanticipated
variables that can influence effectiveness. These ‘lessons learnt’ from the field will not
only aid consecutive phases of this project but will also serve as a model for investigators
pursuing similar endeavors in rural health education.
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