Audiovisual and printed technology to prevent childhood diarrhea: A clinical trial

Objective To compare the effect of using an educational booklet and a video alone or together in promoting maternal self‐efficacy to prevent childhood diarrhea. Design and sample Randomized multicenter clinical trial with 522 mothers of children under 5 years of age from northeastern Brazil. They were allocated into eight groups, according to the city: metropolis − video alone (N = 61), booklet alone (N = 60), booklet and video along (N = 60), without intervention (N = 60); countryside − booklet alone (N = 70), video alone (N = 70), booklet and video along (N = 71), without intervention (N = 70). Measurements A sociodemographic form and the Maternal Self‐Efficacy Scale for preventing early childhood diarrhea. Results Increases in self‐efficacy scores were observed in all experimental groups after the educational intervention. Urban mothers living had greater self‐efficacy than rural mothers. This result was verified in the video alone group (p = .036) and without intervention group (p = .003). Mothers in all intervention groups, regardless of the educational intervention used, had higher self‐efficacy scores than the comparison group mothers (p