Impact of the Maternal and Child Health handbook in Angola for improving continuum of care and other maternal and child health indicators: study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial

This study is a cluster randomised controlled trial involving public healthcare facilities across all the municipalities located in Benguela Province, Angola. All women who go to participating healthcare facilities and with confirmed pregnancy around the beginning of the trial period will be included in the study. Women will be randomised according to the municipality where their primary maternity and/or childcare services are located. The intervention package will consist of MCH handbook distribution at all public healthcare facilities, MCH handbook utilisation training for healthcare providers and community mobilisation for women on the use of the MCH handbook. The intervention will be administered to all women in the intervention arm while those in the control arm will continue the traditional use of two stand-alone HBRs. The primary outcome measure for this study is to compare the proportion of women who achieve a complete continuum of care in both study arms.DiscussionThe findings from the study are expected to form a basis for revising the current trial version of the Angola MCH handbook and provide a framework for policy guiding nationwide scale-up and distribution of the MCH handbook.Trial registrationISRCTN RegistryISRCTN20510127. Registered on 4 June 2019
Source: Trials - Category: Research Source Type: clinical trials