Avaliação de tecnologias educativas para promoção da autoeficácia materna na prevenção da diarreia infantil

Abstract

Diarrhea generates high rates of infant morbidity and mortality and is caused by pathogenic infections associated with socioeconomic, health conditions and maternal behaviors. It’s important to develop educational strategies aimed at strengthening maternal self-efficacy, so that mothers prevent the occurrence of diarrhea and promote the health of their children. It was aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the use of educational technologies to promote maternal self-efficacy in preventing infantile diarrhea. It’s a randomized clinical trial performed with mothers of children under five years old, divided into four groups: control (60 participants initially), booklet (A-60), video (B-61), and booklet and video (AB-60); and developed in Fortaleza-CE, in four Units of Primary Health Care. Three instruments were applied: the form that addressed demographic, socioeconomic, health and child health data; the Maternal Self-efficacy Scale for Preventing Early Childhood Diarrhea; and, by telephone calls, the reduced form for investigation of diarrhea. Data collection took place, from June to October 2015, in three moments: the first moment, in the unit itself, the form and the scale were applied, followed by the application of the interventions, except in the control group; in the second and third moments, the diarrhea scale and the diarrhea investigation form were again applied, one month and two months after the first moment, respectively. The data were analyzed in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, 20.0 version, through descriptive and analytical statistical analysis. The study was approved by the Committee of Ethics in Research of the Federal University of Ceará, and by the Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials. At the 1st moment, all groups showed homogeneity, p<0.05. One month after the interventions (2nd time), the means of maternal self-efficacy scores to prevent childhood diarrhea increased in all groups, but there was no statistical significance. Still in the second moment, there was a higher prevalence of mothers with high self-efficacy for the prevention of childhood diarrhea, with the largest group and video group (AB), 86.5%. Two months after the interventions (3rd time), the means of maternal self-efficacy scores decreased in each group, compared to the second moment, except in the primer and video (AB) group, which remained, but the percentage of mothers with high self-efficacy was higher in the four groups compared to those with moderate self-efficacy. Regarding the occurrence of diarrhea, one month after the interventions (2nd moment), the prevalence of the interviewees who reported their children's illness due to diarrhea was lower in the booklet and video (AB) group, 1.9%, with a statistically significant association (p<0.05). At two months of follow-up (3rd moment), all groups presented lower occurrence of infant diarrhea, compared to the second moment, except the video group (B). At all times after the interventions, it was verified that the average of the scale scores was higher in the primer and video (AB) group, when also the occurrence of infant diarrhea was lower. Educational primer and video, when applied in combination, were more effective in increasing maternal self-efficacy in preventing infant diarrhea and reducing the occurrence of this condition.