THE DESIGN OF A COMMUNITY-BASED HEALTH-EDUCATION INTERVENTION FOR THECONTROL OF AEDES-AEGYPTI

This report describes the process used to develop locally appropriate educational materials and to implement the education component of a co mmunity-based Aedes aegypti control program in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico . The process is broken into five stages: formative research, developi ng recommendations for behavior change, development of educational mes sages, development and production of educational materials, and distri bution of the materials. Appropriate terminology and taxonomies for de ngue were obtained from open in-depth interviews; baseline data from a knowledge, beliefs, and practices questionnaire served to confirm thi s information. A larval survey of house lots was carried out to identi fy the Ae. aegypti larval production sites found on individual house l ots. This enabled the program to target the most important larval habi tats. Community groups were organized to work on the development of me ssages and production of the educational materials to be used. The edu cation intervention was successful in stimulating changes in both know ledge and behavior, which were measured in the evaluations of the inte rvention. To be successful, community-based strategies must be flexibl e and adapted to the local setting because of ecologic, cultural, and social differences between localities.