The costs of “2+1” training method.

BackgroundCounselling is an effective behavior change intervention for improving infant and young child feeding (IYCF). The Maternal and Health Department of National Health Commission China and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) China Office jointly developed a combined online and in-person IYCF counselling training course for primary health workers in rural China. This study aims to test feasibility of the combined training model in rural China.MethodsThe study was conducted between September 2021 and February 2022 in five counties in Qinghai Province, China. We implemented a “2+1” training model for village health workers in the five counties. This model consisted of a 2-day online training session followed by a 1-day in-person training session. After completing the training, each village health workers were requested to provide 12 IYCF counselling services to caregivers of children aged 6–23 months in their villages. We assessed the IYCF knowledge score of village health workers before and after online training, and collected satisfaction level of village health workers and caregivers by using a scale of 1–5. Values ≥4 were considered a high degree of satisfaction. Furthermore, we presented the per-person cost of the “2+1” training model.ResultsThere were a total of 861 village health workers in the five counties, with 802 (93.1%) completed the 2-day online training course and 838 (97.3%) completed the 1-day in-person training course. The mean score of village health workers on IYCF knowledge significantly improved after 2-day online training (72.14 ± 17.84 before training vs. 82.00 ± 17.87 after training, P ConclusionsThis study showed that the combined online and in-person IYCF counselling training is acceptable and feasible with lower cost in rural of Qinghai, which can be scaled up in other rural areas in China.背景 咨询是改善婴幼儿喂养（Infant and Young Child Feeding, IYCF）的有效行为改变干预手段。中国国家卫生健康委员会妇幼健康司与联合国儿童基金会（United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF）中国办事处联合为中国农村地区的基层医疗卫生人员开发了线上线下融合的IYCF咨询培训课程。本研究旨在检验该联合培训模式在中国农村地区的可行性。 方法 本研究于2021年9月至2022年2月在中国青海省5个县开展。我们为上述5县的乡村医疗卫生人员采用「2+1」培训模式：即先开展为期2天的线上培训课程，随后进行1天的线下培训。完成全部培训后，要求每位乡村医疗卫生人员为所在村庄内6~23月龄儿童的照护者提供12次IYCF咨询服务。我们分别在培训前后评估了乡村医疗卫生人员的IYCF知识得分，并通过1~5分的满意度量表收集乡村医疗卫生人员与儿童照护者的满意度评分，得分≥4分视为高满意度。此外，我们还统计了该「2+1」培训模式的人均培训成本。 结果 该5县共有861名乡村医疗卫生人员，其中802人（93.1%）完成了2天的线上培训课程，838人（97.3%）完成了1天的线下培训。乡村医疗卫生人员的IYCF知识平均得分在完成2天线上培训后显著提升（培训前为72.14±17.84，培训后为82.00±17.87，P<0.001）。本次研究收集的满意度数据显示，乡村医疗卫生人员与儿童照护者的满意度整体较高，且该「2+1」培训模式的人均成本较低。 结论 本研究表明，线上线下结合的IYCF咨询培训模式在青海农村地区具备可接受性与可行性，且成本低廉，可在中国其他农村地区进行推广应用。