Guatemala baseline survey: basic tables and implications for strategy.

This paper presents the findings of a Guatemalan survey of caretakers of children under 5 years old a study that will be used in planning and evaluating a health education program to affect practices related to child diarrheal disease and immunization. Carried out by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Nutritional Institute of Central America and Panama (INCAP) the study surveyed 9187 mothers or caretakers of children under 5 years old who were randomly selected within clusters in all 22 departments in Guatemala. Based on survey findings section I of the report examines what channels of communication reach the target audience. Section II considers the current knowledge and use of Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS). Section III describes vaccination coverage of children and the impact of previous vaccination programs while section IV examines the relationship between background characteristics of individuals and their use of particular channels of communication. Some of the studys major findings include: 1) Radio is the appropriate channel for communicating with the target population. 3/5 of the population listens to the radio on a daily basis and radio has the potential to reach at least 1/2 of even the poorest sector in Guatemala. 2) From a technical point of view only broadcasts in Spanish (as opposed to Indian languages such as Quiche and Kekchi) can be justified since 97% of the target audience listens to Spanish broadcasts. 3) Because ORS is rarely used a major effort to legitimize ORS among health professionals and pharmacists if needed. 4) In order to increase timely vaccination coverage Guatemala needs to develop an approach that fits somewhere in between routine service and jornadas (intensive vaccination days).