Trial reportSocial science & medicine (1982)2019
Using community health workers to deliver a scalable integrated parenting program in rural China: A cluster-randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Social science & medicine (1982), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 5 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
35 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 71 citations in OpenAlex.
- Strengthening Early Childhood Development Programs and Interventions in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Systematic Review of Interventions.Maternal & child nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Health education in the prevention and management of infectious diarrhea in childhood: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Pooled it
- Primary-level and community worker interventions for the prevention of mental disorders and the promotion of well-being in low- and middle-income countries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Early childhood development and parental training interventions in rural China: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ global health · 2021Pooled it
- Parenting interventions to promote early child development in the first three years of life: A global systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Family Size and Longitudinal Outcomes of a Digital-Human Parenting Intervention in Chinese Preschool Families: Secondary Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Trial
- Blended Delivery of a Primary Care Parenting Program for Child Development: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2026Trial
- Qualitative insights from a randomized clinical trial of a mother-child emotional preparation program for preschool-aged children.BMC psychology · 2023Trial
- Trial
- Impact of an Early Childhood Development Intervention on the Mental Health of Female Caregivers: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- A holistic approach to promoting early child development: a cluster randomised trial of a group-based, multicomponent intervention in rural Bangladesh.BMJ global health · 2021Trial
- Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Enhanced Early Childhood Development Program Integrated Into Primary Health Care in China: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Health worker support for early learning, responsive caregiving, and safety and security: a scoping review.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Article
- Gender differences in early childhood development in rural China: a sibling structure perspective.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Stakeholders' Perspectives on Child Healthcare Services under Rural Health Reform in Thailand: A Qualitative Study.International journal of community based nursing and midwifery · 2025Article
- Paths of cognitive and social-emotional delays before age three in rural China: Predictive power on skills at preschool age.PloS one · 2024Article
- Article
- Multigenerational birth cohort study in China: importance, necessity and beyond.World journal of pediatrics : WJP · 2023Article
- Effectiveness of an integrated multilevel early child development intervention on caregiver knowledge and behavior: a quasi-experimental evaluation of the Malezi program in Tanzania.BMC public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Inadequate care during early childhood can lead to long-term deficits in skill development. Parenting programs are promising tools for improving parenting practices and opportunities for healthy development. We implemented a non-masked cluster-randomized controlled trial in rural China in order to assess the effectiveness of an integrated home-visitation program that includes both psychosocial stimulation and health promotion at fostering development and health outcomes of infants and toddlers in rural China. All 6-18 month-old children of two rural townships and their main caregiver were enrolled. Villages were stratified by township and randomly assigned to intervention or control. Specifically, in September 2015 we assigned 43 clusters to treatment (21 villages, 222 caregiver-child dyads) or control (22 villages, 227 caregiver-child dyads). In the intervention group, community health workers delivered education and training on how to provide young children with psychosocial stimulation and health care (henceforth psychosocial stimulation and health promotion) during bi-weekly home visits over the period of one year. The control group received no home visits. Primary outcomes include measures of child development (i.e. the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, third edition-or Bayley-III) and health (i.e. measures of morbidity, nutrition, and growth). Secondary outcomes are measures of parenting practices. Intention-to-treat (ITT) effects show that the intervention led to an improvement of 0·24 standard deviations (SD) [95% CI 0·04 SD-0·44 SD] in cognitive development and to a reduction of 8·1 [95% CI 3·8-12·4] percentage points in the risk of diarrheal illness. In addition, we find positive effects on parenting practices mirroring these results. We conclude that an integrated psychosocial stimulation and health promotion program improves development and health outcomes of infants and toddlers (6-30 month-old children) in rural China. Because of low incremental costs of adding program components (that is, adding health promotion to psychosocial stimulation programs), integrated programs may be cost-effective.
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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.