Design and impact evaluation of a digital reproductive health program in Rwanda using a cluster randomized design: study
- PDF / 1,478,037 Bytes
- 15 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 97 Downloads / 173 Views
STUDY PROTOCOL
Open Access
Design and impact evaluation of a digital reproductive health program in Rwanda using a cluster randomized design: study protocol Cara Nolan1* , Laura Packel1, Rebecca Hope2, Jordan Levine2, Laura Baringer2, Emmyson Gatare2, Aline Umubyeyi3, Felix Sayinzoga4, Michael Mugisha3, Janepher Turatsinze5, Aimee Naganza5, Laiah Idelson6, Stefano Bertozzi1 and Sandra McCoy1
Abstract Background: Rwandan adolescents have limited access to high-quality family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) information and care to prevent unplanned pregnancy and HIV/STIs. In addition to the immediate implications for health and well-being, teenage pregnancy is a significant cause of school drop-out, limiting girls’ future potential and employment opportunities. This study introduces a direct-to-consumer digital education program that uses storytelling to deliver age-appropriate FP/RH information and economic empowerment training to adolescents. It also facilitates access to high-quality, youth-friendly FP/RH care and products. We evaluate two different school-based models of its implementation to understand how to optimize the uptake of contraception and HIV testing among adolescents. Methods: The study consists of two distinct phases. The first formative intervention design phase, conducted from 2016 to 2019, used a human-centered design methodology to develop the intervention alongside over 600 Rwandan adolescents, their parents, teachers, and healthcare providers. Through this methodology, we sought to maximize the fit between evidence-based practices (uptake of modern contraception and HIV testing) and the implementation context of adolescents in Rwanda. The second phase is an impact evaluation, in which we will use a Hybrid Trial Type 2 Effectiveness-Implementation study design to determine the overall effectiveness of this digital intervention as well as the relative effectiveness of the two different school-based implementation models. This takes the form of a 3-arm cluster-randomized non-inferiority trial, with a sample of 6000 youth aged 12–19 in 60 schools across 8 districts in Rwanda. Primary outcome measures include use of modern contraception, delayed initiation of childbearing, and uptake of HIV testing. (Continued on next page)
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, 2121 Berkeley Way West, MC 7360, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to t
Data Loading...
