ColaLife AidPod kit package trial to conclude in September

Packaged kit contents, costs continue to be evaluated, but mid-line analysis shows positive results in helping to combat diarrhea in Zambia.

Fresh off earning honors as DuPont’s premier Diamond and Special 25th Anniversary Food Security award-winner, the AidPod/Kit Yamoyo pack continues its one-year trial run in Africa for ColaLife.

ColaLife is an independent nonprofit organization that leverages the Coca-Cola Co. (TCCC) distribution network to transport the AidPod packages containing medicine and information to the needy in remote areas.

AidPod is the name of a registered distribution packaging system whose design inspiration was to utilize the space surrounding bottles in a crate of Coca-Cola during distribution. The first application of this technology is for the wedge-shaped anti-diarrhea Kit Yamoyo (“kit of life”) package that nests or “piggybacks” between bottlenecks within the crates to minimize transportation cube. The ColaLife Operational Trial Zambia (COTZ) concludes in September.

In an effort to learn more and gain an update about the trial findings, Healthcare Packaging conducted the following question-and-answer communication with Rohit Ramchandani, B.Sc., MPH, Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) Candidate Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Public Health Advisor & Principal Investigator, ColaLife.

Healthcare Packaging (HCP): What is the latest news with regard to this trial for ColaLife?

Ramchandani: We are currently in the process of finalizing our mid-line findings. After finishing-up with fieldwork in April, we have been busy cleaning and analyzing the data from our approximately 2,400 household surveys and 180 retailer surveys, from both our intervention districts and our comparison districts.

Early trends are positive, and give us confidence that we are moving in the right direction. For example, with regards to coverage, at midline we found that 31% of households had used Kit Yamoyo to treat a child with diarrhea. Perhaps even more impressive, is the fact that children who had never used zinc before are now doing so and benefiting from the globally recommended treatment regimen.

Prior to the trial, all the ORS (oral rehydration salts) was accessed in the public sector. At midline, we found that of those children in the intervention districts (where the Kit Yamoyo was available) with diarrhea in the two weeks preceding the survey, 43% used the Kit Yamoyo and sourced their ORS from the private sector.  We suspect that this shift may go a long way in reducing the burden on an already strained public health system by freeing up capacity for higher priority issues that cannot be simply treated at home. We are in the process of gathering the necessary evidence to try and demonstrate this. 

We have seen important improvements in terms of proper utilization of ORS, due in part to the Kit Yamoyo container serving as a measuring, mixing, and drinking vessel. We believe that if people are given the tools to make the best decisions for their health, we can improve outcomes. We are also seeing greater satisfaction scores in Kit Yamoyo users as compared to non-Kit Yamoyo users with regard to the taste and acceptability of the ORS by children. The ORS found in the Kit Yamoyo has an orange color and flavor, while the typical ORS does not.

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