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

Health Behavior Clinical Trial

Official title:

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

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02903602
• Other study ID #: FGGS-01
• Secondary ID: N° AID-OAA-A-10-
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: August 31, 2016
• Last updated: September 15, 2016
• Start date: October 2010
• Est. completion date: September 2014

Study information

• Verified date: September 2016
• Source: Future Generations Graduate School
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: United States: Federal Government
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial 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.

Description:

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.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 600
• Est. completion date: September 2014
• Est. primary completion date: September 2014
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Both
• Age group: N/A to 23 Months

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adult interviewed must be mother or guardian of a child under two years of age.

• Child from birth (0.1 months-old) to under two years of age (23.9 months-old).

Exclusion Criteria:

• If a mother selected for interview had more than one child under age two years, only the younger child was considered for the interview and anthropometry measurements.

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Double Blind (Subject, Caregiver, Outcomes Assessor), Primary Purpose: Prevention

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Health Behavior
• Infant Nutrition Disorders
• Nutrition Disorders

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Sharing Histories training method for CHW
Female Community Health Worker training participants were led through a guided process of recalling and sharing their autobiographical memories of their personal experiences in the first 1000 days of each of their children (pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, newborn, breastfeeding, complementary feeding, infant diarrhea and hygiene, pneumonia). On the basis of memories, cultural beliefs and practices are identified and training content is built.
• Standard training method for CHW
Female Community Health Workers were trained with standard participatory teaching method with three phases: identify knowledge, provide new knowledge, evaluate learning.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
n/a

Sponsors (3)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Future Generations Graduate School	Instituto de Investigacion Nutricional, Peru, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Change in rate of stunting in children under two years of age (birth to 23.9 months of age)	Stunting is defined as low height-for-age less than -2 z-scores from the median on the World Health Organization growth standard, 2006.	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	No