[NAIROBI] A study found that potentially lethal cases of diarrhoea and pneumonia in young children can be substantially decreased when simple health messages are conveyed by drama and music.

The research carried out in the Gambia used traditional performance arts to motivate mothers to provide healthy food and water for infants.

As a result of the intervention, researchers from the UK-based University of Birmingham recorded that hospital admissions for diarrhea among children under five were decreased by 60 percent, while admissions for respiratory infections dropped by 30 percent.

According to the World Health Organisation, diarrhoeal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five years of age worldwide, killing 525,000 children of this age group last year.

Researchers analyzed the effect of six months and 32 months of the intervention on

“Semira Manaseki-Holland, lead author of the study and senior clinical lecturer in public health at the University of Birmingham, says, “The improvements we saw in six months […] are among the highest found in any prevention trial other than vaccine.

This is a wonderful low-cost intervention that includes and delivers local public health staff and neighbourhoods, celebrating local values and history and tapping into them,” she adds.”

According to the research published in PLOS Medicine this month (11 January), core habits such as washing hands with soap were exercised by new mothers in the villages who received the intervention at a greater rate than those who did not receive the intervention.

In order to express food protection and sanitation habits to families and mothers, researchers used poems, stories and plays. Instead of worrying about disorders, they focused on empowering the mothers of weaning-age children in a constructive manner.

“Thirty-two months later, without any more contact after six months, the mothers continued to practise improved food safety and hygiene behaviours, informing and encouraging new mothers to do the same and this has sustained the intervention beyond six months,” Manaseki-Holland explains.

She adds that the Gambia success can be replicated in other Sub-Saharan Africa countries: “We are currently replicating this at scale in Mali in 120 urban and rural communities and adding other components to the intervention to make it an integrated nutrition, food safety and play intervention.”

Aghan Odero Agan, a specialist for arts and culture based in Nairobi, Kenya, says that performing arts also serves as one of the most powerful resources for creating deep interaction with targeted audiences if properly implemented.

In the above situation, the performing arts appear to have successfully helped mothers deal with the deadly challenge of diarrhoea and pneumonia for their children’s safety,” Agan tells SciDev.Net.”

“The performing arts seem to have succeeded in getting mothers to weigh, internalize and change course from their daily routine practice of rearing children to adopt new approaches in the fight to save their children’s lives.”

Senior research scientist Elizabeth Kimani, head of maternal and child well-being at the Africa Population and Health Research Centre, Kenya, says the study highlights the significance and effect of human-centered designs in solving neighborhood issues.

“The approach was highly effective in changing community food hygiene behaviors, which led to a reduction in [cases] of diarrhoea and pneumonia-related morbidity in children,” states Kimani.

Traditional performance arts are not only glamorous and culturally appropriate, she says, but the wellness messages are simplified into a vocabulary that the community can readily comprehend, Kimani says.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.