Rhetoric and Reality of Nutrition Promotion through Entertainment Education-A Review of Research from Last Six Decades

This study examines the competency of E-E approach for nutrition education with an aim to understand its effectiveness for nutrition promotion. A systematic review was conducted by using suitable key-words and sourcing published literature from select search engines like PubMed, Google Scholar, EBSCO Host and Google. The inclusion criterion was predefined to include Indian studies that used audio-visual aids, multimedia games, internet, television and radio for education of community/health workers/stakeholders on maternal, child and adolescent nutrition.

40 studies using E-E approach for health promotion were identified (1956–2016); further 20 studies specifically incorporated E-E for nutrition promotion. The studies used E-E approach, however, the typical phases of E-E projects-formative, process and summative research were not adequately followed in some. The appealing E-E model led to nutrition knowledge acquisition in target populations however did not serve as a standalone approach to bring about behavioural change. Considering there is a dearth of literature on the use of E-E, this study attempted to examine the potential of E-E as a tool for behaviour change communication with nutritional content.