Teaching ORT to women: Individually or in groups

Abstract

Programmes to promote the widespread use of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) for diarrhoea used a variety of methodologies to carry the message to mothers. The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) sent its health workers to individual households, and mothers were trained through a one-to-one approach. The cost of training a mother was 72 US cents. Recently, an alternative approach was tried. Instead of individually, mothers were tririned-in · groups which halved the cost. Outcome indi• cators, such as usage, knowledge and safety of ORT solution, were looked at for each type of approach and were not found to be significantly different.