Elaboração e validação de vídeo educativo para promoção da autoeficácia materna na prevenção da diarreia infantil

Abstract

The maternal self-efficacy regarding the ability to care for their children is important for health promotion and consists of a modifiable variable. Given the high rates of morbidity and mortality from infant diarrhea worldwide, there is an urgent need to design strategies aimed at raising maternal self-efficacy in the prevention of infant diarrhea. This study aimed to develop and validate an educational video to promote maternal self-efficacy in the prevention of infant diarrhea. This was a multi-method study: methodological and development study (development of educational video) and randomized clinical trial (application of educational video). For developing the video, we followed three stages: pre-production (synopsis, plot, script, and storyboard), production, and post-production. To validate the video script, we conducted a review by 23 judges, health professionals and experts in the field of infant diarrhea and child health, as well as by five technical judges, experts in the field of communication. Seventeen mothers validated the edited video. After this validation, we applied the video in the intervention group, while the control group received no educational strategy for the prevention of infant diarrhea. It is worth mentioning that 90 mothers of children under five years composed the research group. This phase took place in a primary healthcare unit in Fortaleza-CE, Brazil, in which the first contact was in the health unit and the monitoring for three months happened via telephone. For data analysis, we used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 20.0. The Research Ethics Committee of the Universidade Federal do Ceará approved the project. We verified that, in the four moments of monitoring the mothers in study, the mean scores of maternal self-efficacy for preventing infant diarrhea increased individually in each group, showing statistical significance (p<0.0001). As for the comparison of mean scores in the Maternal Self-Efficacy Scale for Preventing Childhood Diarrhea between groups and within moments, we identified a statistically significant association in the second month of monitoring the mothers (p=0.042). There was a considerable change in the mean self-efficacy scores when comparing the initial moment in the Family Health Center with other moments in both groups. The groups were similar at all moments as regards to the comparison of the mean domain scores of the scale, except for the domain of food/general practices, which in the first month of monitoring presented p=0.036. In the intervention group, we observed that three months after the mothers had watched the educational video at the unit, the chance of children of mothers with moderate self-efficacy having diarrhea was 2.36 higher than in the children of those with high self-efficacy for preventing diarrhea. Thus, we conclude that using the educational video “Infant Diarrhea: you can prevent it” not only increased maternal self-efficacy in preventing infant diarrhea, but also decreased the chances of this disease in children of mothers who had high self-efficacy. We believe that this educational technology combined with participatory interventions and nurses’ guidance contributes to achieving effective results in the prevention of infant diarrhea.