Evaluating the use of educational videos to support the tuberculosis care cascade in remote Madagascar

Abstract

SETTING: Access to information about tuberculosis (TB) is vital to ensure timely diagnosis, treatment, and control among vulnerable communities. Improved approaches for distributing health education materials to remote populations are needed.OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of two comprehensive video training curricula in improving patient, community member, and community health worker knowledge of TB in a remote area of Madagascar.DESIGN: A pre-test/post-test design was used to measure knowledge acquisition. Educational videos were short, culturally appropriate films presented at critical moments in the TB cascade of care.RESULTS: Of the total 146 participants, 86 (58.9%) improved their score on the post-test, 50 (34.2%) obtained the same score, and 10 (6.8%) received a worse score. A statistically significant difference was observed between the pre- and post-test scores, wherein scores increased by a median of 10.0% (interquartile range 0.0–20.0) after viewing the videos (P < 0.001). There was a significant difference between the number of correct answers on the pre-test and the number of correct answers on the post-test (P < 0.001).CONCLUSION: Educational videos were found to significantly improve TB knowledge among a low-literacy, remote population in Madagascar. Our findings suggest educational videos could be a powerful, low-cost, and sustainable tool to improve access to TB education materials globally.