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From Obstacles to Opportunities for Male Circumcision in Tanzania

NCT02167776 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 43

Last updated 2017-01-11

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Male circumcision has been demonstrated by three randomized trials to be a highly effective method of HIV prevention, leading the World Health Organization to recommend its widespread implementation. The investigators' prior work in Tanzania has shown that the acceptability and uptake of male circumcision depends highly on religious beliefs. The investigators hypothesize that the uptake of male circumcision can be increased in villages in which male circumcision is offered in conjunction with church-based teaching and practice, compared with villages in which male circumcision is not promoted through churches.

The investigators will conduct a community randomized trial in rural Tanzania, where the government is systematically providing free male circumcision via campaigns in villages in which rates of circumcision are low. Prior to the start of the campaign, villages will be randomized to receive or not to receive church-based and culturally-informed promotion of male circumcision. All villages will receive the standard non-church-based health education that accompanies male circumcision campaigns.

The investigators will compare rates of male circumcision, both by self-report and by demographic data collected at the time of circumcision, among men and boys before and after the campaign in intervention villages with church involvement versus control villages without church involvement.

Conditions

  • Male Circumcision

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Church-based teaching

In villages that are randomized to receive the intervention, Christian church leaders of both genders and all denominations will be invited to attend an educational seminar about male circumcision. This seminar will last for one day in each intervention village, and will use a curriculum that the investigators' team developed in 2012 based on prior focus group work. Seminars will be conducted in Kiswahili (the national language) and co-taught by a Tanzanian pastor and a Tanzanian clinician who works with the male circumcision outreach campaign. Church leaders will be taught medical, historical, religious, tribal, and social aspects of male circumcision and given tools to lead their congregations in the understanding and practice of male circumcision.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

    collaborator OTHER

  • Weill Medical College of Cornell University

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Jennifer A Downs, MD, PhD · Weill Medical College of Cornell University

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex
MALE
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2014-06-30
Primary Completion
2015-12-31
Completion
2015-12-31

Countries

  • Tanzania

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT02167776 on ClinicalTrials.gov