We should improve diarrhea-related knowledge and rationality of practices among informal healthcare providers′ (IHP) in the densely populated slums of Kolkata to reduce the risk of adverse outcomes, expenditure, and antimicrobial resistance.

A multicomponent intervention, conducted among 140 representative IHPs in the slums of 8 wards in Kolkata, assessed its impact on their diarrhea-related knowledge and practice. The study provided six intervention modules in local languages (1 per month) with baseline (N = 140) and postintervention (N = 124) evaluation.

The study observed-

• Mean overall, domain-specific knowledge scores for etiology/spread, management, and oral rehydration solution increased significantly and were retained after the intervention.
• Impact on knowledge regarding etiology/spread, cholera, management, ORS, and overall were significant.
• The intervention performed better for IHPs who practiced for ≥10 years, untrained IHPs, and pharmacists.
• The intervention reduced irrational practices like empirical antibiotic use for every cholera case and investigation for every diarrhea case.
• It improved the rationality of testing and antibiotic use.

The multicomponent educational intervention caused a sustainable improvement in diarrhea-related knowledge and practices among IHPs in the slums of Kolkata. 

Mahapatra T, Mahapatra S, Chakraborty ND, et al., Intervention to Improve Diarrhea-Related Knowledge and Practices Among Informal Healthcare Providers in Slums of Kolkata. The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 2021;224(7): S890–S900. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab499