Sustained impact of community‐based interventions on contraceptive use among married adolescent girls in rural Niger: Results from a cluster randomized controlled trial
Blake Erhardt‐Ohren, Mohamad I. Brooks, Sani Aliou, Akim Assani Osseni, Alhassane Oumarou, Sneha Challa, Shweta Tomar, Nicole E. Johns, Jay G. Silverman
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the sustained impact of community-based family planning (FP) interventions on current modern contraceptive and long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) use among married adolescent girls in rural Niger. METHODS: We used a cluster randomized controlled trial design following married adolescent girls and their husbands over 3 years. Villages were randomized to one of four arms: household visits, small group discussions, combined intervention, or control. For 1.5 years, couples were exposed to one intervention activity per month and 1.5 years after implementation ended, we used a multi-level mixed effects logistic regression model to evaluate changes in key FP outcomes. RESULTS: We analyzed survey data from 404 married adolescent girls with data at baseline and endline. Small group discussions (+35.6%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 7.94, P < 0.001) and the combined intervention (+17.9%: aOR 4.53, P = 0.005) led to statistically significant increases in the odds of using modern contraceptives at endline compared with the control. The combined intervention (+14.2%; aOR 7.98, P < 0.001) and home visits (+12.6%; aOR 8.09, P < 0.001) led to statistically significant increases in odds of using LARC methods at endline compared with the control. Increase in LARC use was driven by implant use across all intervention groups. CONCLUSION: This study contributes to the empirical evidence base on the sustained impact of community-based interventions on increases in FP use among married adolescent girls in low- and middle-income countries.