Trial reportReproductive health2025
The impact of a participatory learning and action intervention on unmet need for contraception: a cluster-randomized controlled trial in rural Bihar, India.
Trial report in Reproductive health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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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
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundUnmet need for contraception is a persistent issue in rural India. This work evaluates the impact of Gram Varta - a participatory learning and action intervention employed in women's self-help groups in rural Bihar, India - on women's contraceptive behavior and unmet need for contraception. Trained facilitators used an active and participatory communication approach in 20 group meetings to discuss health-related topics focusing on the improvement of communities' knowledge and practice related to health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene. One of the meetings focused on family planning measures, the benefits of various measures, and a discussion on the availability of various means of contraception through the government health system. The intervention was also meant to increase women's empowerment.
methodsGram Varta was evaluated in one district of Bihar, Madhepura, with a cluster-randomized controlled trial. We used a difference-in-differences model to estimate the intention-to-treat effect of Gram Varta on women's contraceptive behaviour and unmet need for contraception using a panel dataset with 972 observations collected in 2015 and 2016.
resultsWe find a statistically marginally significant increase in contraceptive use by 5.8 percentage points (95%-CI [0.00;0.12]) and a statistically significant reduction in unmet need for limiting childbirth by 7.2 percentage points (95%-CI [-0.14;0.00]) among women in treatment villages but no effect on spacing childbirth.
conclusionsThere is indicative evidence that participatory learning and action intervention increased contraception use among women of reproductive age in rural India, but the effect on unmet need was inconsistent.
trial registrationThe randomized controlled trial was registered with and a pre-analysis plan was submitted to 3ie before intervention roll-out. In addition, it was retrospectively registered in the AEA RCT Registry with the identification number AEARCTR-0004700 on September 16, 2019.
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