IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i17p3144-d261919.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Intervention to Improve Uptake of Referrals for Children with Ear Disease or Hearing Loss in Thyolo District, Malawi: Acceptability and Feasibility

Author

Listed:
  • Antonia Baum

    (International Centre for Evidence in Disability, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London WC1 E7HT, UK)

  • Wakisa Mulwafu

    (Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Malawi, Blantyre, Malawi)

  • Mwanaisha Phiri

    (Audiology Department, Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi)

  • Sarah Polack

    (International Centre for Evidence in Disability, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London WC1 E7HT, UK)

  • Tess Bright

    (International Centre for Evidence in Disability, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London WC1 E7HT, UK)

Abstract

(1) Introduction : Poor uptake of referral for ear and hearing services in Malawi has been demonstrated in previous research. A multi-component educational intervention was developed to address poor uptake. The aim of this study was to explore the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. In addition, we aimed to provide a case study of an intervention development and feasibility testing process in preparation for a potential randomised trial. (2) Methods : The intervention included three components: (i) an information booklet; (ii) personalised counselling by a community health worker and an expert mother; (iii) a text message reminder. To assess feasibility, the counselling and information booklet were provided for caregivers of eligible children (<18 years) at ear and hearing outreach camps in Thyolo. Text message reminders were sent to caregivers after the camps. After 4 weeks, all caregivers were revisited and completed a structured questionnaire and a subset were interviewed in-depth. (3) Results : 30 children were recruited, and 53% took up the referral. Interviews found counselling with a booklet was acceptable. It provided motivation, enabled a two-way conversation, and helped dispel fear. It allowed information to be shared with social networks, initiating conversations about raising funds. The text message reminder was reported to be a valued prompt. Challenges to feasibility included low network coverage, and time needed for counselling. Residual barriers included the costs of transportation. The cost was £3.70/camp. (4) Conclusions : The study found that counselling with an information booklet was feasible and acceptable. The process of testing the feasibility of the intervention identified some adaptations to the intervention components and delivery which could be implemented before it is tested in a trial. This study highlighted the value of the feasibility testing process.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonia Baum & Wakisa Mulwafu & Mwanaisha Phiri & Sarah Polack & Tess Bright, 2019. "An Intervention to Improve Uptake of Referrals for Children with Ear Disease or Hearing Loss in Thyolo District, Malawi: Acceptability and Feasibility," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-16, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:17:p:3144-:d:261919
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/17/3144/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/17/3144/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ksoll, Christopher & Lilleør, Helene Bie & Lønborg, Jonas Helth & Rasmussen, Ole Dahl, 2016. "Impact of Village Savings and Loan Associations: Evidence from a cluster randomized trial," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 70-85.
    2. Lena Morgon Banks & Hannah Kuper & Sarah Polack, 2017. "Poverty and disability in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(12), pages 1-19, December.
    3. Jane Wilbur & Tess Bright & Thérèse Mahon & Shaffa Hameed & Belen Torondel & Wakisa Mulwafu & Hannah Kuper & Sarah Polack, 2018. "Developing Behaviour Change Interventions for Improving Access to Health and Hygiene for People with Disabilities: Two Case Studies from Nepal and Malawi," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-21, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maria Zuurmond & Islay Mactaggart & Nanda Kannuri & Gudlavalleti Murthy & Joseph Enyegue Oye & Sarah Polack, 2019. "Barriers and Facilitators to Accessing Health Services: A Qualitative Study Amongst People with Disabilities in Cameroon and India," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-14, March.
    2. Trang Nguyen & Sara Holton & Thach Tran & Jane Fisher, 2019. "Informal mental health interventions for people with severe mental illness in low and lower middle-income countries: A systematic review of effectiveness," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(3), pages 194-206, May.
    3. Beaman, Lori & Karlan, Dean S. & Thuysbaert, Bram, 2014. "Saving for a (not so) Rainy Day: A Randomized Evaluation of Savings Groups in Mali," Center Discussion Papers 187189, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    4. Renata Baborska & Emilio Hernandez & Emiliano Magrini & Cristian Morales-Opazo, 2020. "The impact of financial inclusion on rural food security experience: A perspective from low-and middle-income countries," Review of Development Finance Journal, Chartered Institute of Development Finance, vol. 10(2), pages 1-18.
    5. Emily Lewis & Sophie Mitra & Jaclyn Yap, 2022. "Do Disability Inequalities Grow with Development? Evidence from 40 Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-13, April.
    6. Steinert, Janina I. & Zenker, Juliane & Filipiak, Ute & Movsisyan, Ani & Cluver, Lucie D. & Shenderovich, Yulia, 2018. "Do saving promotion interventions increase household savings, consumption, and investments in Sub-Saharan Africa? A systematic review and meta-analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 238-256.
    7. Rishav Koirala & Erik Ganesh Iyer Søegaard & Saroj Prasad Ojha & Edvard Hauff & Suraj B Thapa, 2020. "Trauma related psychiatric disorders and their correlates in a clinical sample: A cross-sectional study in trauma affected patients visiting a psychiatric clinic in Nepal," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, June.
    8. Premand, Patrick & Stoeffler, Quentin, 2022. "Cash transfers, climatic shocks and resilience in the Sahel," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    9. Fumagalli, Laura & Martin, Thomas, 2023. "Child labor among farm households in Mozambique and the role of reciprocal adult labor," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    10. Ute Rink & Theresa Rollwage, 2022. "Household disability and time preferences: Evidence from incentivized experiments in Vietnam," TVSEP Working Papers wp-027, Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, Institute for Environmental Economics and World Trade, Project TVSEP.
    11. Kengo Igei & Kana Takio & Keitaro Aoyagi & Yoshito Takasaki, 2021. "Vocational training for demobilized ex-combatants with disabilities in Rwanda," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 360-384, October.
    12. Karen Bunning & Joseph K Gona & Charles R Newton & Frances Andrews & Chantelle Blazey & Hannah Ruddock & Jessica Henery & Sally Hartley, 2020. "Empowering self-help groups for caregivers of children with disabilities in Kilifi, Kenya: Impacts and their underlying mechanisms," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-21, March.
    13. Jane Wilbur & Thérèse Mahon & Belen Torondel & Shaffa Hameed & Hannah Kuper, 2019. "Feasibility Study of a Menstrual Hygiene Management Intervention for People with Intellectual Impairments and Their Carers in Nepal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-14, October.
    14. Gonzales Martinez, Rolando & D’Espallier, Bert & Mersland, Roy, 2021. "Bifurcations in business profitability: An agent-based simulation of homophily in self-financing groups," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 495-514.
    15. Nicola Fortune & Ankur Singh & Hannah Badland & Roger J. Stancliffe & Gwynnyth Llewellyn, 2020. "Area-Level Associations between Built Environment Characteristics and Disability Prevalence in Australia: An Ecological Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-15, October.
    16. Jane Wilbur & Tess Bright & Thérèse Mahon & Shaffa Hameed & Belen Torondel & Wakisa Mulwafu & Hannah Kuper & Sarah Polack, 2018. "Developing Behaviour Change Interventions for Improving Access to Health and Hygiene for People with Disabilities: Two Case Studies from Nepal and Malawi," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-21, December.
    17. Suja K. Kunnath & Vinitha Mary George & K. G. Satheesh Kumar & Anithamol Babu, 2023. "Disability Empowerment in Kerala: A Status Analysis and Vision for the Future," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 39(1), pages 104-127, March.
    18. Diego Vera-Cossio, 2022. "Targeting Credit through Community Members," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 20(2), pages 778-821.
    19. Nathaniel Scherer & Islay Mactaggart & Chelsea Huggett & Pharozin Pheng & Mahfuj-ur Rahman & Adam Biran & Jane Wilbur, 2021. "The Inclusion of Rights of People with Disabilities and Women and Girls in Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Policy Documents and Programs of Bangladesh and Cambodia: Content Analysis Using EquiFrame," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-19, May.
    20. Tiago S. Jesus & Sutanuka Bhattacharjya & Christina Papadimitriou & Yelena Bogdanova & Jacob Bentley & Juan Carlos Arango-Lasprilla & Sureshkumar Kamalakannan & The Refugee Empowerment Task Force, Int, 2021. "Lockdown-Related Disparities Experienced by People with Disabilities during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Scoping Review with Thematic Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-24, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:17:p:3144-:d:261919. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.