Using Cultural Ceremonies to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence and HIV Transmission

Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab

Status: Completed

Conditions: HIV

Treatments: Behavioral: Intervention to reduce IPV and HIV

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02311699

ALJameelPAL

Details and patient eligibility

About

Violence against women (VAW), the most extreme manifestation of the unequal power balance between women and men, is a major global public health concern. One of the most common forms of VAW is that perpetrated by a husband or other intimate partner. In Ethiopia, 70.9% of women reported having experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime, demonstrating the pervasiveness of the problem. A growing body of evidence has also linked IPV and HIV risk.

This study is a cluster randomized controlled trial assessing the impact of a community-based intervention focused on Intimate Partner Violence and HIV delivered in the context of the Ethiopian coffee ceremony, a culturally established forum for community discussion and conflict resolution. Villages will be randomly assigned to one of 4 study arms (3 intervention and one control arm): 1) Women only participate in the intervention, 2) Men only participate, 3) Both men and women (couples) participate, 4) Women and men receive the control intervention comprising a short informational session on violence reduction.

Enrollment: 6,800 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 49 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• currently married or cohabitating with partner
• residing in selected village for at least 6 months

Exclusion criteria

• eligible women who do not consent

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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6,800 participants in 4 patient groups

Women Only

Experimental group

Description:

Groups of women will receive the behavioral intervention to reduce IPV and HIV. Sessions will be led by female facilitators.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Intervention to reduce IPV and HIV

Men Only

Experimental group

Description:

Groups of men will receive the behavioral intervention to reduce IPV and HIV. Sessions will be led by male facilitators.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Intervention to reduce IPV and HIV

Couples

Experimental group

Description:

Couples will receive the behavioural intervention to reduce IPV and HIV. Sessions will be led by a male and a female facilitator.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Intervention to reduce IPV and HIV

Control Group

No Intervention group

Description:

Community members in the control villages will receive a short informational session on violence reduction.