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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2019 May 27;19(1):641.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-7008-6.

Effect of a community health worker delivered health, nutrition and responsive stimulation package and conditional cash transfers on child development and growth in rural Tanzania: protocol for a cluster-randomized trial

Christopher R Sudfeld  1   2 , Lilia Bliznashka  3 , Geofrey Ashery  4 , Aisha K Yousafzai  3 , Honorati Masanja  4
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Effect of a community health worker delivered health, nutrition and responsive stimulation package and conditional cash transfers on child development and growth in rural Tanzania: protocol for a cluster-randomized trial

Christopher R Sudfeld et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Child health, nutrition, and responsive stimulation interventions have been developed to improve child survival, growth and development outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. Nevertheless, research on integrated implementation approaches to deliver and promote uptake of these interventions is needed, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Methods/design: We will conduct a cluster-randomized controlled trial of a supply-side community health worker (CHW) delivered child health, nutrition, and responsive stimulation intervention alone and in combination with a demand-side conditional cash transfer (CCT) intervention to promote antenatal care and child growth monitoring attendance in rural Morogoro region, Tanzania. Twelve village clusters will be randomly assigned to one of the three trial arms: (1) CHW, (2) CHW + CCT, or (3) Control. Mothers (or another primary caregiver) residing in study villages are eligible for trial enrollment if they are currently pregnant or have a child < 1 year of age at the time of enrollment. For the duration of the trial, CHWs will visit households once every 4-6 weeks to deliver the intervention package and CCTs will be provided for documented antenatal care and routine child health and growth monitoring clinic visits. Participants will be followed-up at 9 months (midline) and 18 months (endline) post-randomization. The primary outcomes of the trial are child development assessed by the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID-III) and child height-for-age z-score. Secondary outcomes include a range of maternal, child and household outcomes.

Discussion: This trial will provide evidence on the effect of CHWs and conditional cash transfers on child growth and development. The results of the trial may be generalizable to similar settings in sub-Saharan Africa.

Trial registration: ISRCTN10323949 , Retrospectively registered on October 3, 2017.

Keywords: Cash transfer; Child development; Community health worker; Nutrition.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Trial flow diagram
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Schedule of enrollment, interventions and assessments (SPIRIT Figure)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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