Can mass media interventions reduce child mortality?. Issue 9988 (4th July 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Head, Roy; Murray, Joanna; Sarrassat, Sophie; Snell, Will; Meda, Nicolas; Ouedraogo, Moctar; Deboise, Laurent; Cousens, Simon
• Is Part Of: Lancet. Volume 386:Issue 9988(2015)
• Page Start: 97
• Page End: 100
• Publication Date: 2015-07-04
• Subjects: Medicine -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Medicine; Medicine; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 610.5
• DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61649-4
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0140-6736

Abstract

Summary: Many people recognise that mass media is important in promoting public health but there have been few attempts to measure how important. An ongoing trial in Burkina Faso (ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01517230 ) is an attempt to bring together the very different worlds of mass media and epidemiology: to measure rigorously, using a cluster-randomised design, how many lives mass media can save in a low-income country, and at what cost. Application of the Lives Saved Tool predicts that saturation-based media campaigns could reduce child mortality by 10–20%, at a cost per disability-adjusted life-year that is as low as any existing health intervention. In this Viewpoint we explain the scientific reasoning behind the trial, while stressing the importance of the media methodology used.