Cost-effective Evaluation of an Educational Intervention based on Multiple Intelligences Versus Traditional Care to Improve Exclusive Breastfeeding in Mothers’ Clubs in Peru

Abstract

Objective. This work sought to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of two educational interventions to improve exclusive maternal breastfeeding in mothers’ clubs in Peru. Methods. This is a retrospective, longitudinal descriptive study, which reviewed 113 information registries of mothers participating in a traditional educational intervention and 104 mothers with intervention based on multiple intelligences, evaluating the level of knowledge and exclusive maternal breastfeeding practices through observation visits. Results. The intervention based on multiple intelligences achieved greater cost-effectiveness than the traditional intervention given that with lower investment, it managed to get 56.73% of the mothers to increase their knowledge and 68.27% to practice exclusive maternal breastfeeding from six months to more months in comparison with the traditional intervention in which 41.59% and 43.36% improved, respectively. Moreover, for its effective application, on every 100 mothers, its investment would result lower than the traditional program. Conclusion. Upon applying satisfactorily the cost-effectiveness evaluation, as model to compare educational interventions on exclusive maternal breastfeeding, better results were determined with the intervention based on multiple intelligences compared with the traditional intervention, given that with lower investment, it was possible to benefit a greater number of mothers in their level of knowledge and practices of maternal breastfeeding.

Keywords

• breast feeding
• health education
• mothers
• cost-benefit analysis
• knowledge