Willa Friedman, Benjamin Woodman, and Minki Chatterji Oral rehydration solution (ORS) and zinc are the recommended treatment
in developing countries for the management of uncomplicated
diarrhoea in children under five (World Health Organization and UNICEF 2004).
However, drug sellers often recommend costly and unnecessary treatments
instead. This article reports findings from an
experiment to encourage licensed chemical sellers
(LCS) in Ghana to recommend ORS and zinc for the management of childhood
diarrhoea. The intervention consisted of mobile
phone text messages (Short Message Service or SMS) sent to a randomly
assigned
group of LCS who had been trained on the diarrhoea
management protocols recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The SMS campaign comprised informational messages
and interactive quizzes sent over an 8-week period. The study measured
the
impact of the SMS messages on both reported and
actual practices. Analysis of data from both face-to-face interviews and
mystery
client visits shows that the SMS intervention
improved providers’ self-reported practices but not their actual
practices.
The study also finds that actual practices deviate
substantially from reported practices. |