Care takers' recall of Integrated Management of Childhood Illness counselling messages in Benin.
A key goal of the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy is to improve the management of childhood illness at health facilities. IMCIguidelines contain many counselling messages, and as it is not known how well caretakers recall these messages, we studied caretakers' recall of IMCI messages when given under ideal conditions. At a clinic in Benin, a study clinician performed counselling and confirmed caretakers'comprehension of all messages. Caretakers were randomly assigned to be interviewed either immediately after the consultation or a day later. Recall was assessed with general and focused open-ended questions. Recall was assessed for 55 caretakers, 29.1% of whom were literate. Caretakers received 3-75 messages (mean = 38.7). The mean percentage of messages recalled was 89.7% immediately after the consultation and 81.9% one day later. These results support IMCI's recommendation that health workers should verify caretakers' comprehension by asking caretakers to repeat counselling messages during consultations.
Kelly
Jane M
JM
Division of Parasitic Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30341-3724, USA.
Rowe
Alexander K
AK
Onikpo
Faustin
F
Lama
Marcel
M
Cokouits
Francois
F
Deming
Michael S
MS
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001541:Benin; D017028:Caregivers; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003376:Counseling; D019033:Delivery of Health Care, Integrated / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged