Kanté 2019a.
Methods |
Design: cluster‐randomized trial, including continuous health and demographic surveillance through the Health and Health and Demographic Surveillance System of the Ifakara Institute Unit of randomization: village |
Participants |
Inclusion criteria: population in intervention and control villages Exclusion criteria: none stated |
Interventions |
Intervention
Comparison Usual facility services |
Outcomes |
Mortality
Note: data for other outcomes were collected but not reported in the publication, including maternal mortality ratio and adult mortality rates, childhood morbidity, cause of death distribution for children under‐5 years, life years gained, coverage of health services (e.g. rates of antenatal care, skilled attendance at birth, facility delivery, postnatal care, immunization, treatment with ORS, antimalarial medicines, and antibiotics and contraceptive prevalence) the total fertility rate, parental health‐seeking behaviours during child illness, and other parental health behaviours such as prevalence of immediate and exclusive breastfeeding. |
Notes |
Objective: to evaluate the childhood survival impact of deploying paid CHWs to provide doorstep preventive, promotional and curative antenatal, newborn, child, and reproductive health care in 3 rural Tanzanian districts. Location: 3 districts, including Ifakara and Ulanga districts – 2 rural, remote and poor districts of Morogoro region of southwestern Tanzania – 500 km by road from Dar‐es‐Salaam in communities covered by the Ifakara Health Institute and Rufiji district in Coast region, about 150 km by road from Dar‐es‐Salaam. The economies of the 3 districts are dominated by farming, fishing and petty trade. The population was approximately 380,000 people, residing in 101 villages in 2015. Prior to intervention, the main causes of childhood mortality were malaria (7.8 deaths per 1000 person‐years), ARIs including pneumonia (2.8 deaths per 1000 person‐years) and prematurity and low birthweight (1.9 deaths per 1000 person‐years) and other preventable causes such as diarrhoeal diseases, birth injuries and asphyxia, anaemia and malnutrition. Funding source: the US‐based Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) and Comic Relief in the UK financed the trial. Advisors to the DDCF commented on the study design prior to implementation. |