Understanding the Feasibility of a Digital Intervention for Social Behaviour Change to Prevent COVID-19 and Improve Health and Nutrition Outcomes

Background: At the onset of COVID-19, lockdowns and movement restrictions were put in place to control the pandemic, which halted in-person, non-COVID-19 public health and information sharing activities and field visits. To reach beneficiaries during this time, Project Samvad, funded by USAID India and led by Digital Green, implemented a supplementary intervention to share health and nutrition-related advisories among the communities using digital media tools like WhatsApp and interactive voice response (IVR). Digital Green repurposed its videos on health and nutrition in order to share them via digital means. Digital Green evaluated the feasibility of the adapted approaches using digital media tools and capacity building of community-level frontline workers to enhance their knowledge and skills through virtual training programs. Methods: A telephonic survey was conducted among community and frontline workers. 299 community members from three Indian states, i.e., Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha, where WhatsApp and IVR advisories were sent, and 224 frontline workers were interviewed in five states Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Uttarakhand using a quantitative questionnaire developed in ODK. Result: Our analysis indicates that the reach of active phone numbers is high (76% of frontline workers and 73% of community members). The exposure to WhatsApp videos is good; 79% of frontline workers and 49% of community members watched videos on WhatsApp. However, only 33% of community members received IVR messages. Conclusion: By increasing the size and reach of the phone database, improving frontline workers’ training quality, and increase digital literacy among the community, the outreach of digital media tools can be enhanced to improve the health and nutrition outcomes.