Social group and health care provider interventions to increase the demand for malaria rapid diagnostic test among community members in Ebonyi state, Nigeria: study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of social group and social group/provider interventions in increasing the demand (use and/or request) for MRDT among community members with fever or malaria-like illness in Ebonyi state, Nigeria.MethodsA three-arm, parallel, stratified cluster randomized design will be used to evaluate the effect of two interventions compared to control: control involves the usual practice of provision of MRDT services by public primary healthcare providers and patent medicine vendors; social group intervention involves the sensitization/education of social groups about MRDT; social group/provider intervention involves social group treatment plus the training of healthcare providers in health communication about MRDT with clients. The primary outcome is the proportion of children under 5 years of age with fever/malaria-like illness, in the 2 weeks preceding a household survey, who received MRDT. The co-primary outcome is the proportion of children ages 5  years and above and adults (excluding pregnant women) with fever/malaria-like illness, in the 2 weeks preceding a household survey, who received MRDT. The primary outcome will be assessed through household surveys at baseline and at the end of the study.DiscussionThe pragmatic and behavioural nature of the interventions delivered to groups of individuals and the need to minimize contamination informed the use of a cluster-randomized design in this study in investigating whether the social group...
Source: Trials - Category: Research Source Type: clinical trials