TY - JOUR AU - Grills, Nathan AU - Velavan, Jachin AU - Balaji, Sangeetha AU - Grace, Eva AU - Arun, Sheela AU - Raji, Beulah AU - Tan, Natalie AU - Bhattacharjii, Sara PY - 2016/03/31 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Opportunistic Research in Rural Areas through Community Health Worker Training: A Cost-effective method of Researching Medication Misuse in Rural India JF - Indian Journal of Community Health JA - Indian J Community Health VL - 28 IS - 1 SE - Original Article DO - UR - https://www.iapsmupuk.org/journal/index.php/IJCH/article/view/643 SP - 28-34 AB - <p><strong>Background:&nbsp;</strong>In India it is estimated that one third of expenditure of households is spent on health related expenses, and medication purchases make up a large proportion of these costs.&nbsp;<strong>Objective:</strong>&nbsp;To investigate a novel methodology, which was cost effective, to collect large amounts of data to further understand medication purchases and misuse in rural India.&nbsp;<strong>Methods:</strong>&nbsp;This study explores the research approach that was conducted in 2012-13 by Layleaders enrolled in the Community Lay-Leaders’ Health Certificate Program initiative by Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, India.&nbsp;<strong>Results:</strong>&nbsp;The methodology demonstrated a large data collection capacity, where 100 Layleaders participated and collected over 5000 surveys across 515 villages in North, Central and North East India.&nbsp;<strong>Conclusions:</strong>&nbsp;Incorporating opportunistic research methods into community health worker training can be a cost effective way to collect meaningful and useful data in rural India. This study demonstrates a successful methodology that may be transferable to other rural areas and others conducting research training as part of community health worker training should consider such opportunistic research.</p> ER -