An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Component for Matasa Matan Arewa and Smart Start Targeting Married Adolescent Girls in Nigeria and Ethiopia

Summary

Evidence on the effectiveness of interventions aimed at creating demand and access to pre-conceptual and antenatal care (ANC) among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) from sub-Saharan Africa is scarce. A program called Adolescents 360 (A360) led by Population Services International in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania supports adolescent girls to identify contraceptives as a relevant tool for enabling them to pursue their self-defined life aspirations. Avoiding or delaying childbirth is crucial for AGYW to pursue their life goals, but motherhood remains a vital aspiration for many. A360 respects these aspirations and supports AGYW to pursue motherhood when the time comes, safely and aligning with their unique preferences. In 2022, A360 set out to design a maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH) component that would be layered to the existing sexual and reproductive health interventions in Ethiopia and Nigeria. A360 employed human-centered design (HCD) to design these components. The implementation of these components in real-world settings began in 2023. A360 has designed an evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the MNCH components in improving the AGYW's comprehensive knowledge of what is needed to pursue healthy pregnancies, increase their self-efficacy to access ANC and garner support from their key influencers in the process of pursuing healthy pregnancies. The evaluation's primary objective is to determine the effectiveness of the MNCH components at increasing comprehensive knowledge, self-efficacy and key influencer support to pursue healthy pregnancies among married AGYW in Nigeria and Ethiopia. The secondary objectives are: (a) to evaluate the component's effectiveness at increasing comprehensive knowledge of what care is required to attain healthy pregnancies, (b) to evaluate the component's effectiveness at increasing self-efficacy to attend ANC, (c) to determine the component's efficacy at eliciting support from AGYW's key influencers when they are pursuing healthy pregnancies, and (d) to surface the system-level barriers, facilitators, and opportunities for program improvement during the implementation of the MNCH components. The MNCH components are implemented in Kaduna and Jigawa states in Nigeria and in Oromia, Sidama, Amhara, South and Central regions in Ethiopia. The evaluation is based in the same geographies where the components are implemented. The evaluation uses an implementation-effectiveness hybrid design, blending an outcome evaluation and an implementation science component. The outcome evaluation constitutes of a quantitative survey using a longitudinal approach with two study arms, an intervention, and a comparison arm. It has three assessments: a recruitment phase, and two follow-ups (3 months after recruitment and 8 weeks post-partum (only for pregnant AGYW).

Participant recruitment is conducted using recruitment scripts after obtaining oral consent and the administration of a set of screening questions to assess eligibility. Full consenting procedures are executed and written consent obtained prior to involvement in any of the evaluation components. A structured questionnaire is used to gather quantitative data from the survey using a Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) approach. Furthermore, FGD, IDI and KII facilitation guides are used to gather qualitative data. During this process, all sessions are audio-recorded. Audio records are transcribed verbatim and translated. Data is collected by trained enumerators and qualitative researchers who are certified to conduct human subjects' research. Analysis of quantitative data will follow a repeated measures approach employing generalized estimating equations. The repeated measurements of each subject will be made at two times. Between group t-tests and chi-square tests of comparison will be conducted to identify secondary outcomes which show statistically significant differences between participants in the intervention and comparison arms. The qualitative data transcripts will be rigorously analyzed using NVivo or Dedoose. Open-coding and closed-coding will be utilized to identify themes in the qualitative data. Claim statements attributing change to key intervention drivers will be drawn from narrative stories of program beneficiaries guided by the intervention's theory of change.

The evaluation received ethical approvals from Ethiopian Midwives Association (EMwA) Institutional Review Commitee (IRC) and the PSI Research Ethics Board (REB) prior to the enumerators training and field data collection. Subsequently, the ethical approval letters were submitted to the sub-national health departments for their reference and support in the management of the field work.

Conditions

• Pre-conceptual Care
• Antenatal Care
• Postpartum Family Planning
• Adolescent Maternal Health

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Intervention group

These are behavioural interventions delivered by trained HEWs or Health providers at primary care facilities (PHCs in Nigeria and Health posts in Ethiopia).

BEHAVIORAL

Comparison group

These are behavioural interventions delivered by trained HEWs or Health providers at primary care facilities (PHCs in Nigeria and Health posts in Ethiopia).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Population Services International

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

15 Years

Max Age

24 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-11-17

Primary Completion

2025-05-31

Completion

2025-12-31

Countries

• Kenya

Study Locations