Conceptual Framework & Project Design

The home visits present local evidence about factors related to maternal and child health outcomes to pregnant women and their male partners, to spur actions within the household, according to the CASCADA behaviour change model. Our theory of change proposes that household actions on these factors will lead to improved maternal and child health outcomes.

The project takes place in six wards (administrative areas) of Toro Local Government Authority (LGA) in Bauchi State. It is a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial in a stepped-wedge design. In 2016, home visits began in two randomly selected wards of Toro LGA, with two more wards added in 2017, and two more in 2018. Female home visitors registered more than 50,000 CBAs in more than 30,000 households. The study follows some 22,000 pregnancies overall, and compares pregnancy and child outcomes in wards with visits and wards not yet visited, to identify the impact of the visits (ISRCTN82954580).
The published study protocol gives details about the study design and methods.