Clinical trial NCT04125251: Men Engagement in Women Empowerment for Improving Maternal Mental Health Through Cash Transfer and Life Skills Building
Official title: Supporting Women and Girls in Pakistan: Scaling Up Empowerment and Care Strategies to Address Health and Survival
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Empowerment
Domestic Violence
Depression
Self Efficacy
Keywords: Maternal Depression
Women Empowerment
Life Skills Building
Lead sponsor: Aga Khan University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
name: Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP)
First posted: 2019-10-14
Enrollment: 1696
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 15
Maximum age (years): 49
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: The intervention and the assessment will be carried out parallel in the intervention and the control arm.
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: This project aims to offer Life Skills Building (LSB) intervention to Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) Cash Transfer (CT) beneficiaries in couples in order to reduce domestic violence and depression and improve women empowerment in married women of reproductive age. The intervention will be carried out in the rural settlements of district Thatta, Sindh Pakistan.

Detailed description: The study will assess the impact of Life Skill Building (LSB) to Benazir Income support Program (BISP) Cash Transfer (CT) beneficiaries and their husbands in improving maternal mental and child health and its combined effect in empowering women and couples. The Formative phase of the project was dedicated for the development and modification of National level LSB curriculum for men and women. The formative phase was carried out in Thatta (Sindh), Rahimyar Khan (Punjab), Lasbela (Baluchistan) and Peshawar (KPK).

The intervention phase will be conducted in district Thatta, where BISP beneficiaries along with their spouses will be offered a LSB training. This intervention will be offered by community teachers to ensure sustainability and community trust. The participants will be recruited for baseline assessment followed by a comprehensive LSB intervention.The end-line follow up assessments (five months of intervention) will be done after the deliver of intervention. A qualitative summative inquiry will be done at the completion of the project to explore the overall impact of the LSB intervention. Since the project is being implemented with the BISP, the cost of intervention can be estimated for the scalability and sustainability.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Adult married couples living together: where women receive Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) Cash Transfer (CT), have one child of at least 18 months and have no family migration plan for next 2 years

Exclusion Criteria:

* Gross mental impairment in either of the partners
* Either of the partner is physically challenged or bedridden

Primary outcomes:
measure: Decreased Maternal Depression
timeFrame: Base-line, and End-line (5 months post-intervention)
measure: Decreased Domestic Violence
timeFrame: Base-line, and End-line (5 months post-intervention)
measure: Improved General Self-Efficacy
timeFrame: Base-line, and End-line (5 months post-intervention)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Improved Household Food Security
timeFrame: Base-line, and End-line (5 months post-intervention)
measure: Increased Resilience
timeFrame: Base-line, and End-line (5 months post-intervention)
measure: Improved Gender Attitude
timeFrame: Base-line, and End-line (5 months post-intervention)
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Karachi
country: Pakistan
facility: The Aga Khan University
state: Sindh
Study officials:
affiliation: The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan
name: Zulfiqar ZB Bhutta, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan
name: Rozina RK Karmaliani, PhD
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
affiliation: The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan
name: tazeen TS Ali, PhD
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
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