SynthesisBulletin of the World Health Organization2016
Group-based microfinance for collective empowerment: a systematic review of health impacts.
Synthesis in Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 4 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
37 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 97 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of women's economic empowerment interventions on antenatal care outcomes: a systematic review.BMJ open · 2023Pooled it
- Collective efficacy measures for women and girls in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.BMC women's health · 2022Pooled it
- Community interventions with women's groups to improve women's and children's health in India: a mixed-methods systematic review of effects, enablers and barriers.BMJ global health · 2020Pooled it
- Impact of Political Economy on Population Health: A Systematic Review of Reviews.American journal of public health · 2019Pooled it
- Rojiroti microfinance and child nutrition: a cluster randomised trial.Archives of disease in childhood · 2020Trial
- Mapping multilevel barriers impacting the performance of Ethiopia's Community-Based Health Extension Program: A scoping review.PloS one · 2026Article
- Transitions in women's experience of physical domestic violence during 2001-2020 and related risk and protective factors: the MINIMat longitudinal cohort study in rural Bangladesh.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Starting a cultural collective for mothers of children with disabilities: A case study.African journal of disability · 2024Article
- Conceptualising the empowerment of caregivers raising children with developmental disabilities in Ethiopia: a qualitative study.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- The road to recovery: Financial resilience and mental health in post-apartheid South Africa.SSM - population health · 2023Article
- Community empowerment and mental wellbeing: longitudinal findings from a survey of people actively involved in the big local place-based initiative in England.Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · 2023Article
- Women's Employment and Intimate Partner Violence: Understanding the Role of Individual and Community Structural Drivers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.Journal of interpersonal violence · 2023Article
- Development and validation of the Economic Coercion Scale-20 (ECS-20): A short-form of the ECS-36.PloS one · 2023Article
- The impact of access to financial services on mitigating COVID-19 mortality globally.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Structural Interventions to Enable Adolescent Contraceptive Use in LMICs: A Mid-Range Theory to Support Intervention Development and Evaluation.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Conceptualizing the Socio-Built Environment: An Expanded Theoretical Framework to Promote a Better Understanding of Risk for Nonmedical Opioid Overdose Outcomes in Urban and Non-Urban Settings.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2022Article
- Matching Intent With Intensity: Implementation Research on the Intensity of Health and Nutrition Programs With Women's Self-Help Groups in India.Global health, science and practice · 2022Article
- Utilization of Postnatal Care Service in Indonesia and its Association with Women's Empowerment: An Analysis of 2017 Indonesian Demographic Health Survey Data.Maternal and child health journal · 2022Article
- Article
- Recommendations for equitable COVID-19 pandemic recovery in Canada.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo assess the impact on health-related outcomes, of group microfinance schemes based on collective empowerment.
methodsWe searched the databases Social Sciences Citation Index, Embase, MEDLINE, MEDLINE In-Process, PsycINFO, Social Policy & Practice and Conference Proceedings Citation Index for articles published between 1 January 1980 and 29 February 2016. Articles reporting on health impacts associated with group-based microfinance were included in a narrative synthesis.
findingsWe identified one cluster-randomized control trial and 22 quasi-experimental studies. All of the included interventions targeted poor women living in low- or middle-income countries. Some included a health-promotion component. The results of the higher quality studies indicated an association between membership of a microfinance scheme and improvements in the health of women and their children. The observed improvements included reduced maternal and infant mortality, better sexual health and, in some cases, lower levels of interpersonal violence. According to the results of the few studies in which changes in empowerment were measured, membership of the relatively large and well-established microfinance schemes generally led to increased empowerment but this did not necessarily translate into improved health outcomes. Qualitative evidence suggested that increased empowerment may have contributed to observed improvements in contraceptive use and mental well-being and reductions in the risk of violence from an intimate partner.
conclusionMembership of the larger, well-established group-based microfinance schemes is associated with improvements in some health outcomes. Future studies need to be designed to cope better with bias and to assess negative as well as positive social and health impacts.
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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.