Survive and Thrive Boa Vista Early Childhood Program

NCT ID: NCT03386747

Last Updated: 2017-12-29

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: UNKNOWN
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 15000 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2017-12-01
• Study Completion Date: 2020-12-01

Brief Summary

The proposed project will tackle the two most salient problems for children under 5 in Brazil: the continued high rates of neonatal mortality, and the large disparities in early childhood development. We propose to extend and scale up previously tested and validated home visiting programs to the city of Boa Vista in the north region of Brazil. The core intervention of the program will be home visits or group meetings to mothers and caregivers by trained child development agents. At the core of the program is a detailed curriculum, which contains gestation and age-specific topics of child health and development to be discussed with caregivers at each encounter.

Detailed Description

Even though much progress has been achieved in child mortality globally, relatively minor improvements have been realized in the first four weeks of children's life generally referred to as the neonatal period. Each year, four million infants die within the first 28 days of their life globally. As pointed out in the Lancet's neonatal survival series, 3 million neonatal deaths could be prevented each year by low-cost interventions. In Brazil, more than 25,000 newborns die each year within the first 28 days of their life, with a majority of deaths occurring in the first week. Previous studies suggest that one of the most effective ways to prevent such deaths are home visiting programs, which support mothers in the first weeks of infant's lives, promote breastfeeding and kangaroo mother care, and ensure appropriate medical care when needed. From a child health and child development perspective, optimal outcomes appear only feasible if continued support is provided to mothers from pregnancy throughout the first years of children's life. Home-based visits and support have become increasingly recognized as a both crucial and highly cost-effective strategy to achieve such outcomes.

The objective of this project is to extend and scale up the previously tested and validated home visiting programs to the city of Boa Vista. At the core of this program is a detailed curriculum, which contains gestation and age-specific topics of child health and development to be discussed with caregivers at each home visit. The intervention package will start in the third trimester of pregnancy and feature to sessions per month up to age 3 years.

This curriculum will be delivered through two separate - and randomly assigned - platforms: home visits through trained Child Development Agents (CDAs), and center-based delivery of the same delivery to groups of caregivers. The pilot study in Sao Paulo suggests that each CDA can handle approximately 40 families, visiting each caregiver twice per month. Visits will be initiated during the second trimester of pregnancy. The visits during pregnancy will not be a substitute for prenatal care but are designed to prepare mothers for babies and set up a relationship for a closer follow-up after birth. In Brazil, as well as globally, the numbers of pre-term deliveries and stillbirth is rather large, 20% of mature stillbirths (more than 37 weeks of gestation, more than 2.5 Kg) so the pre-natal care can be improved clearly. The visits would also occur during the neonatal period, when the largest proportional of under 5 mortality happens. This would be the first component of the program, addressing maternal and perinatal/neonatal mortality. Particular attention will be given to mothers after birth, with two special visits scheduled for the first week after birth focusing on maternal mental health; breastfeeding as well as kangaroo mother care when appropriate. Such visitation programs have been successfully tested within the family health strategy, and will be further reinforced and complemented by the new visitation program.

The city of Boa Vista has a population of approximately 330,000 people, with, 22,377 families (~30%) currently receiving social cash transfers under the bolsa familia program. The city is comparable to the national average in terms of the observed poverty rates, and roughly average in terms of its size. Infant mortality rate is estimated at 14.2 per 1000 live births, with 21% of births given by teenage mothers and 15% of infants born preterm.

The proposed project will exclusively target the most vulnerable households currently supported by the bolsa familia social cash transfer program. According to municipality estimates, about 5000 children are born each year in eligible households.

Conditions

Neonatal Death; Mental Competency

Keywords

child development; neonatal mortality

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Home Visiting Group

Intervention: Home visits to improve parenting behaviors

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Home visits to improve parenting behaviors

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Caregivers will be visited twice per month starting from the third trimester in pregnancy up to age three to discuss important health and development behaviors.

Center based parenting group

Intervention: Center based parenting groups

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Center based parenting groups

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Caregivers will be invited to early childhood development groups. Groups will meet at nearby centers twice per month. Caregivers will be invited to participate starting from the third trimester up to age 3 of the child.

control group

The rest of pregnant women and their children who will not receive the intervention

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Home visits to improve parenting behaviors

Caregivers will be visited twice per month starting from the third trimester in pregnancy up to age three to discuss important health and development behaviors.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Center based parenting groups

Caregivers will be invited to early childhood development groups. Groups will meet at nearby centers twice per month. Caregivers will be invited to participate starting from the third trimester up to age 3 of the child.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• pregnant women living in the urban area of Boa Vista

at LEAST ONE of the following vulnerability criteria

1. bolsa família or other social cash transfer program recipient

2. household income per capita less than half of minimum wage

3. previous exposure to domestic or sexual violence before.

Exclusion Criteria

• women living outside of Boa Vista urban area
• women not meeting social vulnerability criteria above

• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

The University of The West Indies

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Inter-American Development Bank

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Sao Paulo

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Alexandra Brentani

Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Alexandra Brentani, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Sao Paulo

Locations

Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo

São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Countries

Brazil

References

Brentani A, Ferrer APS, Bessa L, Chang S, Walker S, Powell C, Hamadani J, Grisi S, Fink G. Survive and Thrive in Brazil: The Boa Vista Early Childhood Program: study protocol of a stepped-wedge, randomized controlled trial. Trials. 2020 May 7;21(1):390. doi: 10.1186/s13063-020-4217-3.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 32381097 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

TTS180818280

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id