Clinical Trial: Sharing Histories: Test of a Teaching Method for Community Health Workers

Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Interventional

Official Title: Health in the Hands of Women: Test of a Community Health Worker Teaching Method "Sharing Histories"

Brief Summary: The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of an innovative methodology for training Community Health Workers that will improve their effectiveness in educating mothers to adopt best practice health behaviors in the home.

Detailed Summary:

Objective: Training of community health workers (CHW) is a growing priority to close the gap between health services and mothers/families in resource poor communities. To address research needs on how to improve effectiveness of CHW training, the investigators tested an innovative CHW teaching methodology called "Sharing Histories" hypothesizing that this would empower and enable CHW to better teach mothers to improve health knowledge and behaviors that contribute to improved child growth.

Method: The study was a cluster-randomized controlled trial: 22 health facility jurisdictions were matched and randomly assigned as experimental or control. Health personnel Tutors and female CHW were trained using either the "Sharing Histories" methodology (experimental) or a standard but still participatory teaching method (control). Training content, materials, and other interventions were held constant between study groups. Impact on maternal knowledge and practices, and child growth and morbidity were measured in representative household surveys at baseline, midterm, and final evaluation, with 600 mothers interviewed - 300 in each study group - at each point in time.


Sponsor: Future Generations Graduate School

Current Primary Outcome: Change in rate of stunting in children under two years of age (birth to 23.9 months of age) [ Time Frame: Chidren born up to 24 months prior to the baseline survey in 2010. Children born up to 24 months prior to the final survey in 2014 ]

Stunting is defined as low height-for-age less than -2 z-scores from the median on the World Health Organization growth standard, 2006.


Original Primary Outcome: Same as current

Current Secondary Outcome:

Original Secondary Outcome:

Information By: Future Generations Graduate School

Dates:
Date Received: August 31, 2016
Date Started: October 2010
Date Completion:
Last Updated: September 15, 2016
Last Verified: September 2016