edoc

Two-year impact of community-based health screening and parenting groups on child development in Zambia : follow-up to a cluster-randomized controlled trial

Rockers, Peter C. and Zanolini, Arianna and Banda, Bowen and Chipili, Mwaba Moono and Hughes, Robert C. and Hamer, Davidson H. and Fink, Günther. (2018) Two-year impact of community-based health screening and parenting groups on child development in Zambia : follow-up to a cluster-randomized controlled trial. PLoS medicine, 15 (4). e1002555.

[img] PDF - Published Version
Available under License CC BY (Attribution).

1565Kb

Official URL: https://edoc.unibas.ch/69227/

Downloads: Statistics Overview

Abstract

Early childhood interventions have potential to offset the negative impact of early adversity. We evaluated the impact of a community-based parenting group intervention on child development in Zambia.; We conducted a non-masked cluster-randomized controlled trial in Southern Province, Zambia. Thirty clusters of villages were matched based on population density and distance from the nearest health center, and randomly assigned to intervention (15 clusters, 268 caregiver-child dyads) or control (15 clusters, 258 caregiver-child dyads). Caregivers were eligible if they had a child 6 to 12 months old at baseline. In intervention clusters, caregivers were visited twice per month during the first year of the study by child development agents (CDAs) and were invited to attend fortnightly parenting group meetings. Parenting groups selected "head mothers" from their communities who were trained by CDAs to facilitate meetings and deliver a diverse parenting curriculum. The parenting group intervention, originally designed to run for 1 year, was extended, and households were visited for a follow-up assessment at the end of year 2. The control group did not receive any intervention. Intention-to-treat analysis was performed for primary outcomes measured at the year 2 follow-up: stunting and 5 domains of neurocognitive development measured using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-Third Edition (BSID-III). In order to show Cohen's d estimates, BSID-III composite scores were converted to z-scores by standardizing within the study population. In all, 195/268 children (73%) in the intervention group and 182/258 children (71%) in the control group were assessed at endline after 2 years. The intervention significantly reduced stunting (56/195 versus 72/182; adjusted odds ratio 0.45, 95% CI 0.22 to 0.92; p = 0.028) and had a significant positive impact on language (β 0.14, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.27; p = 0.039). The intervention did not significantly impact cognition (β 0.11, 95% CI -0.06 to 0.29; p = 0.196), motor skills (β -0.01, 95% CI -0.25 to 0.24; p = 0.964), adaptive behavior (β 0.21, 95% CI -0.03 to 0.44; p = 0.088), or social-emotional development (β 0.20, 95% CI -0.04 to 0.44; p = 0.098). Observed impacts may have been due in part to home visits by CDAs during the first year of the intervention.; The results of this trial suggest that parenting groups hold promise for improving child development, particularly physical growth, in low-resource settings like Zambia.; ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02234726.
Faculties and Departments:09 Associated Institutions > Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH)
09 Associated Institutions > Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) > Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (EPH) > Household Economics and Health Systems Research > Epidemiology and Household Economics (Fink)
06 Faculty of Business and Economics > Departement Wirtschaftswissenschaften > Professuren Wirtschaftswissenschaften > Epidemiology and Household Economics (Fink)
UniBasel Contributors:Fink, Günther
Item Type:Article, refereed
Article Subtype:Research Article
Publisher:PLoS
ISSN:1549-1277
Note:Publication type according to Uni Basel Research Database: Journal article
Language:English
Identification Number:
edoc DOI:
Last Modified:01 Mar 2019 12:51
Deposited On:01 Mar 2019 12:51

Repository Staff Only: item control page