Trial reportBMC public health2018
Sexual violence among adolescent girls and young women in Malawi: a cluster-randomized controlled implementation trial of empowerment self-defense training.
Trial report in BMC public health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 3 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
20 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring the Activities and Target Audiences of School-Based Violence Prevention Programs: Systematic Review and Intervention Component Analysis.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2023Pooled it
- Assessment of Psychosocial Programs to Prevent Sexual Violence During Adolescence: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.JAMA network open · 2022Pooled it
- Adolescent dating violence prevention programmes: a global systematic review of evaluation studies.The Lancet. Child & adolescent health · 2021Pooled it
- Effectiveness of an empowerment-based self-defense program among South African girls: results from a cluster-randomized control trial in schools.BMC women's health · 2025Trial
- Sexual Assault Among Young Adolescents in Informal Settlements in Nairobi, Kenya: Findings from the IMPower and SOS Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2024Trial
- Adapting, Sustaining and Scaling Violence against Women and Children Prevention Interventions in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review on the Use of Implementation Science.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2026Article
- "Okay, So It's Not Me"-TheInternational journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Prevalence, risk factors and interventions to prevent violence against adolescents and youths in Sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review.Reproductive health · 2025Article
- Accelerating achievement for Africa's adolescents.Contemporary social science · 2025Article
- "I Wouldn't Believe Her at First"-A Qualitative Study of Young People's Sexual Consent Perceptions and Negotiation in Nairobi Informal Settlements.Journal of interpersonal violence · 2023Article
- Article
- Are school-based interventions to prevent dating and relationship violence and gender-based violence equally effective for all students? Systematic review and equity analysis of moderation analyses in randomised trials.Preventive medicine reports · 2023Review
- School-based interventions for preventing dating and relationship violence and gender-based violence: A systematic review and synthesis of theories of change.Review of education (British Educational Research Association) · 2022Review
- A summative content analysis of how programmes to improve the right to sexual and reproductive health address power.BMJ global health · 2022Article
- Strengthening women's empowerment and gender equality in fragile contexts towards peaceful and inclusive societies: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Campbell systematic reviews · 2022Review
- Mechanisms for the prevention of adolescent intimate partner violence: A realist review of interventions in low- and middle-income countries.PLOS global public health · 2022Article
- Young People's Experiences With an Empowerment-Based Behavior Change Intervention to Prevent Sexual Violence in Nairobi Informal Settlements: A Qualitative Study.Global health, science and practice · 2021Article
- Interventions that address institutional child maltreatment: An evidence and gap map.Campbell systematic reviews · 2021Article
- Disclosure, reporting and help seeking among child survivors of violence: a cross-country analysis.BMC public health · 2020Article
- "We are responsible for the violence, and prevention is up to us": a qualitative study of perceived risk factors for gender-based violence among Ethiopian university students.BMC women's health · 2019Article
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 at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundGlobally, sexual violence is prevalent, particularly for adolescent women. This cluster-randomized controlled implementation trial examines empowerment self-defense (ESD) for sexual assault risk reduction among school-age women in Malawi.
methodsThe unit of randomization and analysis was the school (n = 141). Intervention participants received a 12-h intervention over 6 weeks, with refreshers. Primary outcomes were past-year prevalence and incident rate of sexual violence. Secondary outcomes included confidence, self-defense knowledge, and, for those victimized, violence disclosure. Interaction effects on outcomes were evaluated with Poisson models with school-correlated robust variance estimates for risk ratios and incident rate ratios (baseline n = 6644, follow-up n = 4278).
resultsPast-year sexual assault prevalence was reduced among intervention students (risk ratio [RR] 0.68, 95% CI 0.56, 0.82), but not control students (interaction effect p < 0.001). Significant increases in self-defense knowledge were observed solely among intervention students (RR 3.33, 95% CI 2.76, 4.02; interaction effect p < 0.001). Significant changes in sexual violence prevalence and knowledge were observed for both primary and secondary students. Favorable reductions were also observed in sexual violence incident rate among students overall (interaction effect p = 0.01).
conclusionsThis intervention reduced sexual violence victimization in both primary and secondary school settings. Results support the effectiveness of ESD to address sexual violence, and approach the elimination of violence against women and girls set forth with Sustainable Development Goal #5. Implementation within the education system can enable sustainability and reach.
trial registrationPan African Clinical Trials Registry PACTR201702002028911 . Registered 09 February 2017. Retrospectively registered.
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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.