Knowledge evaluation of clinical case management in IMNCI among trained and untrained accredited social health activists in two districts of Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

IMNCI was launched in Uttar Pradesh, India in 2005 for integrated management of under 5 children. Success of IMNCI depends to a large scale on the performance of ASHAs. The performance of ASHAs will in turn depend on their knowledge and skills. There is a paucity of research describing and comparing the knowledge of ASHAs who are trained in IMNCI to those who are not trained. The present study was done to compare and describe the knowledge of non-trainees and the follow up knowledge of the trainees regarding clinical case management of IMNCI in two districts of Uttar Pradesh of India. This study indirectly assessed the effects of IMNCI training in the improvement of knowledge of health care personnel. It was a Cross-sectional comparative study conducted in two districts Kanpur & Kannauj of Uttar Pradesh and specifically Shivrajpur and Jalalabad blocks of Kanpur and Kannauj respectively over a duration of one year from March 2019 to February 2020. hivrajpur block of Kanpur had 122 ASHAs and none of them had received 10 days IMNCI/CCSP training. Jalalabad block of Kannauj had 153 ASHAs and all of them had received 10 days IMNCI/CCSP training(as per NRHM UP data). 108 ASHAs from Kanpur and 94 ASHAs from Kannauj participated in the study. CHI-Square test was done to test whether the finding that knowledge difference between the ASHAs of Kanpur Nagar and Kannauj was real or merely a chance finding. The results were pooled form the two districts against each of the 26 variables. The proportion of trained in IMNCI module and untrained was calculated. Results show that clinical case management of IMNCI training status had an association with knowledge score. This study testified much higher knowledge score among trained personnel than their counterparts.