Evidence - SBC Impact
Compelling, credible, recent, direct impact data
Evidence - SBC Impact
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Handwashing Promotion - 27% Fewer School Absences due to Illnesses

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Strategy researched

A handwashing with soap communication intervention that established social norms for child and mother, used the fear of contamination and disgust, and created peer pressure

Impact achieved

5-year-old children whose parents participated in the handwashing programme experienced 27% fewer school absences due to illnesses, 25% fewer episodes of diarrhoea, 15% fewer acute respiratory infections (ARIs), and 46% fewer eye infections compared to children whose parents did not participate. There were 31% fewer cases of diarrhoea and 14% fewer cases of ARIs among "whole families" in the programme. There were also reported results for children aged 6 to 15 years, showing a reduction of 30% fewer cases of diarrhoea and 15% of ARIs compared to the control group. For younger children, under the age of 5, in the intervention group, there were 32% fewer cases of diarrhoea and 20% fewer cases of ARIs compared to the families in the control group.

Country of study

India

Research methodology

RCT

Journal

Tropical Medicine and International Health; 2014

Journal paper title and link

An investigation of the effects of a hand washing intervention on health outcomes and school absence using a randomised trial in Indian urban communities

Excerpt from Abstract

"Direct-contact hand washing interventions aimed at younger school-aged children can affect the health of the whole family. These may be scalable through public–private partnerships and classroom-based campaigns."

 

Why the focus on direct impact data?

A common challenge from policy makers, funders, community members, people directly experiencing development issues, and governments is: Demonstrate your Impact. Prove that what you are doing works. The high quality, highly credible data presented on the cards below is designed to help you answer that question for your social change, behaviour change, community engagement, communication and media for development, strategy formulation, policy engagement and funding initiatives. At this link filter the research data to your specific interests and priorities

Why a playing cards design?

There is a physical pack of cards with this data (to get a copy please request through the comment form for any card). The card approach allows for easy identification and selection of relevant direct impact data in any context. For example if talking with a donor and you need to identify proof of impact say "take a look at the 7 of Hearts". Quick access can be provided to high-quality data for many areas of your work – funding, planning, policy, advocacy, community dialogue, training, partner engagement, and more. A card deck is also engaging, easy to use and share, a conversation starter, and a resource - and they are fun and different. So we kept that design for the online images as it can serve similar purposes. 

What are the criteria for inclusion?

The impact data presented meets the following high standard for inclusion criteria:

  • Positive change or trend in a priority development issue;
  • Social change or behaviour change strategy or process;
  • Randomized Control Trial or Systematic Review methodology;
  • High quality peer review journal published;
  • Numeric impact data point
  • Published since 2010.