Community-Based Health Education Led by Women's Groups Significantly Improved Maternal Health Service Utilization in Southern Ethiopia: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of health education intervention (HEI) on maternal health service utilization (MHSU) in southern Ethiopia. From 10 January to 1 August 2023, a community-based, two-arm, parallel-group cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT) was conducted among pregnant mothers in the Northern Zone of Sidama National Regional State, Ethiopia. We utilized multilevel mixed-effects modified Poisson regression with robust variance to control for the effects of clustering and potential confounders. The level of significance was adjusted for multiple comparisons. The overall utilization of at least one antenatal care (ANC) visit was 90.2% in the treatment group and 59.5% in the comparator group (χ2 = 89.22, p < 0.001). Health facility delivery (HFD) utilization was considerably different between the treatment group (74.3%) and the comparator group (50.8%) (χ2 = 70.50, p < 0.001). HEI significantly increased ANC utilization (adjusted risk ratio [ARR]: 1.32; 99% CI: 1.12-1.56) and HFD utilization (ARR: 1.24; 99% CI: 1.06-1.46). The utilization of at least one postnatal care (PNC) service was 65.4% in the treatment group and 52.1% in the comparator group (χ2 = 19.51, p = 0.01). However, after controlling for the effects of confounders and clustering, the impact of HEI on PNC utilization was insignificant between the two groups (ARR: 1.15; 99% CI: 0.89-1.48). A community-based HEI significantly increased ANC and HFD utilization but did not increase PNC utilization. Expanding the HEI with certain modifications will have a superior effect on improving MHSU. NCT05865873.