Evaluation of the Moments That Matter Program in Kenya

President and Fellows of Harvard College

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Child Development

Treatments: Behavioral: Moments that Matter (MTM) Program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05796934

IRB22-1670

Details and patient eligibility

About

This cluster-randomized trial aims to evaluate the impact of the Moments That Matter® (MTM) Program on early child development and caregiving outcomes in two selected counties in western Kenya.

Full description

Approximately 43% of children under-5 are at risk of not attaining their developmental potential. Parenting interventions are recommended for improving early childhood development during the earliest years of life. However, there is limited evidence regarding the delivery and effectiveness of parenting interventions to promote early child development outcomes in Kenya specifically. This cluster-randomized trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Moments That Matter® (MTM) Program on early child development and caregiving outcomes in two selected counties in western Kenya. The MTM Program will be implemented by the Anglican Church of Kenya Development Services - Nyanza (ADS-Nyanza), a faith-based organization focused on supporting integrated community-based programs to support the health, wellbeing, and development of the most vulnerable children and families. Various stakeholders - including community volunteers, faith leaders, and ECD committees - will be mobilized and trained to deliver nurturing care and ECD services over an 18-month program period. This trial will enroll primary caregivers of children 0-18 months of age and longitudinally follow the study cohort to ultimately compare changes in early child development and caregiving outcomes between the intervention and waitlist-control study arms. In addition to the impact evaluation, a qualitative implementation evaluation will be conducted to assess quality of delivery, identify factors that influence program effectiveness, and determine program potential for sustainability and scale-up.

Enrollment: 595 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Primary caregiver (parent or legal guardian) to a child aged 0-18 months
• Resides in a village selected into the research study
• Caregiver provides informed consent on behalf of both themself and the child to participate

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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595 participants in 2 patient groups

Moments that Matter

Experimental group

Description:

The intervention group will receive the Moments that Matter (MTM) program, which will involve monthly peer group sessions and monthly home visits that are delivered by ECD promoters over an 18-month program duration, training of faith leaders, and the formation of ECD committees at the community-level.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Moments that Matter (MTM) Program

Waitlist-Control

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group will not immediately receive the MTM program but instead the standard of care services (e.g., those provided by community health volunteers which are primarily focused on maternal and child health and nutrition). After follow-up assessments are completed for the trial, then villages in the control group will receive the MTM program.