Trial reportJournal of epidemiology and community health2016
Formative evaluation of a participatory women's group intervention to improve reproductive and women's health outcomes in rural Bangladesh: a controlled before and after study.
Trial report in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effective strategies for increasing the uptake of modern methods of family planning in South Asia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC women's health · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Effect of nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions with participatory videos and women's group meetings on maternal and child nutritional outcomes in rural Odisha, India (UPAVAN trial): a four-arm, observer-blind, cluster-randomised controlled trial.The Lancet. Planetary health · 2021Trial
- Community groups or mobile phone messaging to prevent and control type 2 diabetes and intermediate hyperglycaemia in Bangladesh (DMagic): a cluster-randomised controlled trial.The lancet. Diabetes & endocrinology · 2019Trial
- Participatory Women's Groups with Cash Transfers Can Increase Dietary Diversity and Micronutrient Adequacy during Pregnancy, whereas Women's Groups with Food Transfers Can Increase Equity in Intrahousehold Energy Allocation.The Journal of nutrition · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Alcohol-related cirrhosis mortality, 1990-2021: temporal trends and development-level inequalities.Gastroenterology and hepatology from bed to bench · 2026Article
- Integrating family planning with nutrition and other sexual and reproductive health services in low-income and middle-income countries: findings from a scoping review.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- What's in a name? Unpacking 'CommunityBMJ global health · 2023Article
- Health Mothers' Groups in Nepal: Barriers, Facilitators, and Recommendations.Current developments in nutrition · 2022Article
- Article
- The power of the collective empowers women: Evidence from self-help groups in India.World development · 2021Article
- Exploring the impact of a community participatory intervention on women's capability: a qualitative study in Gulu Northern Uganda.BMC women's health · 2021Article
- The epidemiology of gynaecologic health: contemporary opportunities and challenges.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2020Article
- Feasibility of a cluster randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of peer-led health education interventions to increase uptake of retinal examination for diabetic retinopathy in Kirinyaga, Kenya: a pilot trial.Pilot and feasibility studies · 2020Article
- Acquiring of knowledge about sexual health by blind people: an action research.Revista latino-americana de enfermagem · 2019Article
- Participatory farm diversification and nutrition education increase dietary diversity in Western Kenya.Maternal & child nutrition · 2019Article
- Article
- Implementation of a facilitation intervention to improve postpartum care in a low-resource suburb of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Implementation science : IS · 2018Article
- Pathways from women's group-based programs to nutrition change in South Asia: A conceptual framework and literature review.Global food security · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWomen's groups using participatory methods reduced newborn mortality in rural areas of low income countries. Our study assessed a participatory women's group intervention that focused on women's health, nutrition and family planning.
methodsThe study was conducted in three districts in Bangladesh between October 2011 and March 2013, covering a population of around 230 000. On the basis of allocation for the preceding cluster randomised trials, three unions per district were randomly allocated to receive a women's group intervention and three per district were control clusters. Outcomes included unmet need for family planning, morbidity, dietary diversity, night blindness, healthcare decision-making and knowledge of sexual and reproductive health, nutrition and anaemia. A difference-in-difference analysis was used to adjust for secular trends and baseline differences between women taking part in the intervention and a random sample from control clusters.
resultsWe interviewed 5355 (91% response rate) women before the intervention and 5128 after (96% response rate). There were significant improvements in women's dietary diversity score (increase of 0.2 (95% CI 0.1 to 0.3)) and participation in healthcare decision-making (proportion increase (95% CI) 14.0% (10.6% to 17.4%)). There were also increases in knowledge about: contraception (4.2% (2.0% to 6.3%)), ways to treat (55.4% (52.2% to 58.5%)) and prevent (71.0% (68.0% to 74.1%)) sexually transmitted infections, nutrition (46.6% (43.6% to 49.6%)) and anaemia prevention (62.8% (60.9% to 64.6%)). There were no significant differences in unmet need for family planning, morbidity or night blindness.
conclusionsParticipatory women's groups have considerable potential to improve women's health knowledge, but evidence of impact on certain outcomes is lacking. Further formative work and intervention development is needed to optimise the impact of this approach for women's health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.