Engaging Fathers for Effective Child Nutrition and Development in Tanzania
Condition: Child Nutrition and Early Child Development
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This study aims to evaluate the independent and combined effectiveness of engaging both
      mothers and fathers in bundled parenting and nutrition behavior change packages on early
      child nutrition and development.
    

Detailed description: 
      The overall aim of EFFECTS is to develop, implement, and evaluate nutrition and parenting
      interventions that will be delivered by community health workers in the Mara region of
      Tanzania. We will use a 2x2 factorial cluster randomized controlled study design, plus a
      local standard of care control group, to evaluate the effectiveness of EFFECTS on the primary
      outcomes of early child nutrition and development. In total, there will be five study arms:
      nutrition intervention with mothers, nutrition intervention with mothers and fathers, bundled
      nutrition and parenting intervention with mothers, bundled nutrition and parenting
      intervention with mothers and fathers, and a local standard of care control. We hypothesize
      that an intervention approach that engages fathers will benefit the primary outcomes; a
      bundled nutrition and parenting package will benefit the same primary outcomes; and that the
      combined intervention approach - that both engages fathers and bundles nutrition and
      parenting messages - will have additive benefits on the primary outcomes.
    

Intervention name(s): Nutrition, mothers; Nutrition, mothers and fathers; Nutrition+parenting, mothers; Nutrition+parenting, mothers and fathers
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral; Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Nutrition-related social and behavior change (SBC) messages and activities for mothers focused on infant and young child feeding (IYCF), dietary diversity, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), food access (use of income and home-grown foods), psychosocial well-being, gender equity, intra-household resource allocation, partner communication and household decision-making; Nutrition-related social and behavior change (SBC) messages and activities for mothers and fathers focused on infant and young child feeding (IYCF), dietary diversity, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), food access (use of income and home-grown foods), psychosocial well-being, gender equity, intra-household resource allocation, partner communication and household decision-making; Nutrition- and parenting-related social and behavior change (SBC) messages and activities for mothers focused on infant and young child feeding (IYCF), dietary diversity, responsive caregiving and child stimulation (play and communication), water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), food access (use of income and home-grown foods), psychosocial well-being, gender equity, intra-household resource allocation, partner communication and household decision-making; Nutrition- and parenting-related social and behavior change (SBC) messages and activities for mothers and fathers focused on infant and young child feeding (IYCF), dietary diversity, responsive caregiving and child stimulation (play and communication), water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), food access (use of income and home-grown foods), psychosocial well-being, gender equity, intra-household resource allocation, partner communication and household decision-making
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Factorial Assignment
Intervention model description: Eighty villages in the Mara region of Tanzania will be randomly selected and randomly allocated with equal probability and in equal numbers to one of the five EFFECTS study arms. In each participating village, one sub village will be randomly selected with equal probability, and a sampling frame of all households in that sub village will be created with the help of local leaders. Households will be selected from this sampling frame using simple random sampling. The selected households will be listed in random order and visited by study staff, who will assess whether a household meets all inclusion criteria and provides informed consent. Households will be visited until 12 households are enrolled in each village. If not enough eligible households are found, additional households will be selected using the same procedure from the nearest sub village in the same village.
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: Infant and young child feeding; Nutrition; Stimulation; Parenting; Early childhood development; Social and behavior change; Father involvement; Male engagement; Household decision-making; Community health workers; Peer groups; Integrated interventions