TY - JOUR
T1 - Community Mobilisation for Human Sample Collection in Sensitive Communities
T2 - Experiences from Granular Mapping of Schistosomiasis and Soil-Transmitted Helminths in Ekiti State, South West, Nigeria
AU - Agbana, Temitope
AU - Omotade, Omolade
AU - Aderogba, Moses O.
AU - Bell, David
AU - Solomon, Jacob
AU - Animashaun, Saheed
AU - Alabi, Peace
AU - Diehl, Jan-Carel
AU - Vdovine, Gleb
AU - More Authors, null
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Community mobilisation is a vital process for raising awareness and increasing participation in healthcare interventions, research, and programmes that require human sample collection and mass management. In this report, we present the community mobilisation approach undertaken for the implementation of the operational mapping and assessment of granular schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths in Ekiti State, Nigeria. The mobilisation was conducted in 177 communities/wards of the 16 local government areas. A total of 15,340 urine and stool samples were collected in 34 days. The efficacy and success of the strategy were evaluated through the following three performance metrics: community compliance rate, the participant response rate at the community level, and the overall compliance response rate of the four most sensitive LGAs. Community compliance was 93.7% as sample collection was denied in nine communities and two other communities demanded the return of the collected samples despite our mobilisation effort because of cultural bias and myths that connect the collection of stool and urine samples to ritual activities in the local context. The participant response rate at the community level was 86.7%. Three of the four sensitive LGAs (based on previous assessment programmes) demonstrated satisfactory compliance rates of 100%, while a response rate of 64.0% was computed for one of the LGAs. We believe our approach contributed to effective community mobilisation and awareness and that the developed model has the potential to improve participation rates in large healthcare assessments and intervention programmes.
AB - Community mobilisation is a vital process for raising awareness and increasing participation in healthcare interventions, research, and programmes that require human sample collection and mass management. In this report, we present the community mobilisation approach undertaken for the implementation of the operational mapping and assessment of granular schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths in Ekiti State, Nigeria. The mobilisation was conducted in 177 communities/wards of the 16 local government areas. A total of 15,340 urine and stool samples were collected in 34 days. The efficacy and success of the strategy were evaluated through the following three performance metrics: community compliance rate, the participant response rate at the community level, and the overall compliance response rate of the four most sensitive LGAs. Community compliance was 93.7% as sample collection was denied in nine communities and two other communities demanded the return of the collected samples despite our mobilisation effort because of cultural bias and myths that connect the collection of stool and urine samples to ritual activities in the local context. The participant response rate at the community level was 86.7%. Three of the four sensitive LGAs (based on previous assessment programmes) demonstrated satisfactory compliance rates of 100%, while a response rate of 64.0% was computed for one of the LGAs. We believe our approach contributed to effective community mobilisation and awareness and that the developed model has the potential to improve participation rates in large healthcare assessments and intervention programmes.
KW - community mobilisation
KW - sample collection
KW - schistosomiasis mapping
KW - STH
KW - Ekiti
KW - South West
KW - advocacy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85210588816&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/tropicalmed9110255
DO - 10.3390/tropicalmed9110255
M3 - Article
SN - 2414-6366
VL - 9
JO - Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease
JF - Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease
IS - 11
M1 - 255
ER -