Last reviewed · How we verify
Evaluation of Scaling Up Early Childhood Development in Zambia (SUpErCDZ)
In Zambia, 40% of children under five years of age are stunted and 6% are wasted. While the Zambian government has focused on child nutrition in recent years, more focus on holistically improving early child development (ECD) is needed. Through a previous randomized controlled trial, the investigators developed a community-based parenting intervention and demonstrated that this intervention can improve children's developmental outcomes in Zambia, including nutritional status and their early language development. During fortnightly group meetings, parents learn a diverse curriculum that includes content on: 1) cognitive stimulation and play practices; 2) child nutrition and cooking practices; and 3) self-care for good mental health. This information and learning content is delivered by supervised community volunteers using an interactive theatre-based approach. In this study, the newly established maternity waiting homes (MWHs) and affiliated Safe Motherhood Action Group leaders (SMAGs) will be used as a novel platform to launch and support community-based parenting groups, embedding this program directly into the existing health system, and making them more feasible for scale-up and sustainability. Despite the positive impact of the proposed parenting-group model in the pilot trial, this model is not currently operating in Zambia. By integrating this intervention into the existing health system, large populations of rural children exposed to high levels of adversity in the critical early years of life could be reached in a nationally scalable fashion. As part of this project, the investigators propose to implement and rigorously assess the impact of this approach in four districts of Zambia.
Details
| Lead sponsor | Boston University |
|---|---|
| Phase | NA |
| Status | COMPLETED |
| Enrolment | 1108 |
| Start date | Fri Sep 20 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) |
| Completion | Mon Jan 31 2022 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) |
Conditions
- Early Childhood Development
Interventions
- SMAGs trained on ECD curriculum
- Head women trained on ECD curriculum
- Head women led parent groups
- Usual care of children 0-5 months
Countries
Zambia