About

Worldwide, 1.45 billion people are estimated to be infected with intestinal worms (soil-transmitted helminths (STH). STHs are primarily found in low resource settings and can result in cognitive impairment and growth stunting in children. Mass drug administration (MDA) of antihelminthic drugs to at-risk populations is still the main strategy for control. However, MDA, as a stand-alone intervention, does not prevent STH reinfection. Accordingly, complementary measures to prevent re-infection, such as improvements in hygiene through health education and improved sanitation, could complement MDA programs for sustainable STH control.

In 2013, the successful development and testing of a video-based health education package, “The Magic Glasses”, to prevent STH infections in Chinese schoolchildren was reported. The cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) demonstrated that the package increased students' knowledge about STH and led to a change in behavior and a 50% efficacy in preventing STH infections.

To evaluate the potential for up-scaling of this health education package as a universal school-focused educational tool to form part of multi-component sustainable STH control program, my PhD research seeks to assess the generalizability of the earlier findings in different geographical settings and in different ethnic groups. As such, a new cluster RCT was undertaken in Laguna province, the Philippines. Additional work was conducted to determine the cost and scalability of the intervention to provide evidence for translation of the package into a public health policy and practice in the Asian region and beyond. In this seminar, the main findings of my PhD research will be presented.

Bio

Mary Lorraine Mationg is a PhD candidate in the Department of Global Health of the National Center for Epidemiology and Population Health supervised by Professor Darren Gray, Professor Donald McManus and Professor Gail Williams. Prior to undertaking her PhD, she has worked with the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine - Department of Health in the Philippines. She has a track record in epidemiology, international and tropical health, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and field-based research.