Use of community-based interventions to promote family planning use among pastoralist women in Ethiopia: cluster randomized controlled trial

Abstract Background Afar region is one of the pastoralist dominated regions in Ethiopia. The characterized by a low contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) 5.4%. Lack awareness use, husband objection and religious barriers are attributed to CPR region. This study assessed effect community-based interventions for promoting family planning (FP) use among communities Methods design was three-arm, parallel, clustered randomized controlled trial (CRT). three arms were: (1) male involvement education; (2) women’s education on FP; (3) control. A total 33 clusters were allocated with one-to-one ratio. Intervention components included health FP married women men faema leaders (a traditional structure that serves as social support group); video-assisted message assisting leader using workers extension (HEWs). intervention given nine months. intentions measured outcome variables. In addition, cluster-level summary considering cluster analysis performed. result presented t.test, adjusted risks its 95% confidence interval (CI). Results proportion 34% education, 17.5% 4.3% There positive change absolute risk (AR) 0.29 (95% CI, 0.23,0.34) 0.13 CI,0.08,0.17), respectively, compared control arm. Similarly, had 3.4 (2.48, 4.91) 2.1 (1.50, 2.95) higher intention FP, Conclusion present suggests such male-dominated more considerable barriers, mainly targeting males appears be promising strategy improving FP. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03450564, March, 2018.