Effectiveness of Trained Religious Leaders' Engagement in Maternal Health Education in Ethiopia

Jimma University

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Maternal Health

Treatments: Behavioral: Maternal health education

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05716178

RP0133/12

Details and patient eligibility

About

Community education and demand generation activities by involving family members, traditional and religious leaders in maternal health behaviours are potential solutions. Knowledge about maternal and neonatal health service utilization can be increased through community-based structures, such as religious organizations.

Full description

Religious and faith community health promotions have the ability to reduce health inequities, and religious institutions are among the most respected and trustworthy institutions that can considerably boost public health work. Similarly, Faith leaders, in addition to physicians and health care providers, are another category of people who have a big impact on other people's beliefs, feelings, and behaviors, according to research. Spiritual leaders have the ability to impact health behavior on a variety of levels, from personal to ecological, with "knock-on" implications on community health. This is achieved via health education and health promoting strategies. Furthermore, the influence of faith leaders on health behavior is in line with the tenets of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion since they are perceived as strengthening community action. That is, communities must be empowered to participate in and govern their own affairs. A faith leader is in a unique position to encourage behavior change since he or she is a vital component of the community. According to an evaluation of programs involving faith-based organizations, clergy were able to considerably aid behaviour change, particularly among hard-to-reach populations. Other studies have also identified the importance of faith leader's influence on health behavior. Similarly, faith leaders influence on behavior has been attributed to Scripture-based passages that espouse the virtues of healthy living. Although some studies have suggested that spiritual leaders play a role in influencing congregants' health behaviors, little information on the amount of this influence and the mechanisms involved available.

In Ethiopia, the majority of the population belongs to a religious group, and religion is an important part of society. Through places of worship, religious institutions have access to a large portion of the population. Religious leaders serve as community leaders as well as gatekeepers of information and access to the population and can help raise awareness about underutilized maternal and neonatal health services. Therefore this cluster-randomized trial is designed to evaluate the effects of trained religious leaders' engagement in maternal health education in improving maternal health service utilization and knowledge of major obstetric danger signs.

Enrollment: 612 estimated patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 49 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Pregnant women less than 20 weeks gestational age
• Living in selected kebele (small administrative unit in Ethiopia)
• Pregnant women willing to participate in the study

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnant women who are seriously ill and unable to communicate will be excluded from the study.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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612 participants in 2 patient groups

Maternal health education

Experimental group

Description:

participants in the intervention group will receive behavioral change communication on maternal health from trained religious leaders. The local religious leaders from each clustered kebele will be recruited based on religious educational status (educational status greater than or equal to diploma), acceptance by their followers and popularity, in collaboration with religious organization leaders, health extension workers, and kebele leaders. Then after the potential religious leaders are recruited, the two days training will be given for them. Recruited religious leaders are expected to give training on the topics (maternal health) for four sessions to promote healthy maternal behaviors for the members of their religion. After training sessions, every participant will receive a copy of the visual materials (posters) containing the key messages for promoting prenatal health behaviors.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Maternal health education

Usual or routine care

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group in this study will be on the existing routine maternal service without a provision of religious leaders' training intervention. In this arm, there will be no intervention by the researchers, rather baseline and end line data will be collected.