Chama Cha MamaToto: a Pilot Study of Peer Support Groups in Kenya

Moi University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Group, Peer; Pregnancy Related

Treatments: Behavioral: Chama cha Mamtoto

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03188250

UMoi3

Details and patient eligibility

About

Preventing maternal and newborn deaths remain high on the global agenda. To address this, the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH), in partnership with the Government of Kenya, launched Chama cha MamaToto, a community-led peer-support model that groups women together in pregnancy and infancy. Central to the chama approach is the integration of health, social and financial literacy education with a savings/loans program.

Full description

To evaluate the feasibility of chamas, we analysed group attendance rates, GISE participation, membership retention, and continuation of the groups beyond the one year. To evaluate the effect of chamas, the investigators compared data from a prospective cohort of women in chamas with a group of controls who did not belong to a chama, matched for age, parity, and location of prenatal care. To evaluate the acceptability of chamas, FGDs were carried out with chama and non-chama participants, health providers and community health workers.

Enrollment: 515 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 15 to 70 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Pregnant women in communities where chamas were taking place
• Any woman attending chama

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

515 participants in 2 patient groups

Chama cha MamaToto

Experimental group

Description:

Pregnant women in communities where chama cha mamatoto is taking place will be invited to join and participate in bi-weekly group meetings for a year

Treatment:

Behavioral: Chama cha Mamtoto

Referent

No Intervention group

Description:

Pregnant women attending at least one prenatal visit in communities where chama cha mamatoto was implemented three months later served as the comparison