Effect of male partner involvement on maternity waiting home utilization in Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia: a cluster-randomized controlled trial protocol

BackgroundThe primary cause of adverse maternal health outcomes has been identified to be the delay in reaching care at health facility. This is often attributed to the long distances’ women need to travel to gain access to health facilities. Literature show that maternity waiting homes (MWHs) contribute significantly to the reduction of maternal death and stillbirth among users. Despite its importance in improving maternal & neonatal health outcomes, the utilization of MWHs is very low in Ethiopia. So, it is important to investigate what strategies could be effective in improving MWH utilization in Ethiopia. The aim of this study is to assess if male partner involvement could be used as a solution to improve MWH utilization in Ethiopia.Methods/designThis study will evaluate the effect of male partner involvement on MWH utilization in Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia. A behavioral intervention will be performed using a cluster-randomized controlled trial design. The intervention will have two arms, i.e., experimental and control arms. The study participants will be pregnant women in their second trimesters with their male partners. The total trial sample size will be 388. That means 194 study participants in each arm. Randomization will be conducted at cluster level. Study participants and assessors will be masked. Data analysis will be performed by STATA version 14.0 using an Intention-To-Treat Approach.DiscussionThe content of the intervention will be group health education, home visits, and phone counseling. Health education will be delivered to "husband-expectant wife" pairs at the baseline. Then home visits will be conducted at the beginning of every month, and phone counseling will be conducted in the third week of every month for consecutive six months. The anticipated trial commencement time is November 2021.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05015023. Registered August 20, 2021. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05015023