ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT03376217Updated Jul 26, 2021

Assessing the Effectiveness of Community Delivery of Intermittent Preventive Treatment in Pregnancy (IPTp) in Malawi

An interventional study of IPTp delivered by HSAs in Malaria in Pregnancy, sponsored by Kamuzu University of Health Sciences. Completed at 1 site in Malawi. Open to female participants aged 16 Years to 49 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2021-07-26.

Sponsored by Kamuzu University of Health Sciences · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
1,447
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
16 Years to 49 Years
Sex
Female
01

Study summary

The overall aim of the study is to learn whether utilization of Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) for delivery of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnant women (IPTp) can increase coverage of three or more IPTp doses compared to IPTp delivery only at antenatal clinics (ANC), while at the same time improve or maintain ANC attendance. This will be a cluster randomized trial, including a total of 20 health facilities (HF) which will be randomly assigned to either the intervention (10) or non-intervention group (10); all HSAs affiliated with a HF will be in the same group.

Read the detailed description

Project Background WHO recommends the use of intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) to prevent the adverse effects of malaria in pregnancy. In 2012, in an effort to boost uptake, the World Health Organization (WHO) updated its policy promoting initiation of IPTp-SP as early as possible during the second trimester and at every scheduled antenatal clinic (ANC) visit thereafter, as long as the visits were at least one month apart. Despite this recommendation, progress has been slow, and no sub-Saharan African country has achieved the 85% coverage target set by the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI). Malawi was the first country to adopt IPTp-SP, and though it had early gains, these have remained stagnant. Coverage of 2 doses of IPTp-SP was 42.9% in 2004 (DHS), 53.8% in 2010 (DHS), and remained only 63% as of 2014 (MIS), despite the fact that >95% of women make 2 or more visits to the ANC, with 44% making four or more visits, and despite the fact that the median gestational age at the first visit is 5.6 months. Clearly, a novel approach to ensure earlier presentation at ANC and increase IPTp delivery is needed to boost coverage to the 85% target. Community delivery of IPTp has been suggested as a means to improve coverage, however, there is concern that this could also lead to reduced antenatal care (ANC) visits. Thus, it is relevant to assess whether there is a benefit of community delivery of IPTp-SP under the current policy advocating IPTp at each ANC visit, whether this approach is feasible, both from the standpoint of service delivery as well as data collection, and ensure that there is no adverse effect on ANC attendance prior to large scale roll-out.

Study Aims Broad objective: The overall aim of the study is to learn whether utilization of Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) for delivery of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnant women (IPTp) can increase coverage of three or more IPTp doses compared to IPTp delivery only at antenatal clinics (ANC), while at the same time improve or maintain ANC attendance

Specific objectives Primary objective

  1. Determine the effect of community-based IPTp delivery by HSAs compared with facility-based IPTp delivery on IPTp coverage (including 1, 2, 3, and 4 doses) and ANC coverage (including 1, 2, 3, and 4 visits) Secondary objectives
  2. Document the level of service delivery by HSAs
  3. Assess women's knowledge of HSAs and attitudes about receiving IPTp from a HSA
  4. Assess the feasibility of scaling-up community delivery of IPTp from the perspective of health facility staff, and HSAs..
  5. Assess the acceptability of community delivery of IPTp from health facility staff, HSAs, and women.
  6. Assess the factors which may affect the scale-up of community delivery of IPTp from the perspective of health facility staff, HSAs, and women.
  7. Assess incremental costs of community-based IPTp delivery compared to HF based IPTp delivery from both provider and household perspectives.

Methodology Study design: This will be a cluster randomized trial, including a total of 20 health facilities (HF) which will be randomly assigned to either the intervention (10) or non-intervention group (10); all HSAs affiliated with a HF will be in the same group.

The study will use baseline and end line cross sectional household surveys, midline and post-intervention in-depth interviews with health facility staff and HSAs, pre- and post-intervention in-depth interviews with women, and focus group discussions with HSAs to achieve the objectives.

02

Conditions studied

  • Malaria in Pregnancy

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Keywords

  • malaria
  • malaria in pregnancy
  • intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp)
  • community health workers
  • Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP)
03

In context

Malaria

1,184 studies on the registry are indexed under Malaria; 79 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 1,447 is above the median of 252 across 937 interventional studies indexed under Malaria.

Browse Malaria studies →

Lead sponsor

Kamuzu University of Health Sciences is the lead sponsor of 13 studies on the registry; 2 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
16 Years to 49 Years
Sexes eligible
Female
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

Pregnant women:

  • All pregnant women residing in study catchment area are eligible to receive SP from HSAs, with the exception of positive women.
  • To be included in the women's question portion of the baseline and end line household surveys, women must be between the ages of 16-49 years, have been pregnant/delivered in the previous 12 months, consent to participation, and will be eligible for inclusion in surveys regardless of where the woman gave birth (i.e., whether at home or in facility). All pregnant/recently pregnant women will be included in the cross sectional survey, but the sample size is calculated in order to identify those who have completed pregnancies in the past 12 months. There were be a very short subset of demographic and knowledge questions which will be asked of all households during the baseline and end line surveys, regardless of whether there are any recently pregnant women in the household.

Providers:

  • At each facility we will randomly select one ANC provider who has had at least six months of work experience
  • HSA supervisor
  • Health facility in-charge

HSAs:

  • All HSAs working in the study areas will be eligible; we will select at least 36 at random to be participate in interviews and focus groups discussions.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

Pregnant women: Women who experienced a delivery in the past 12 months, but are \<16 or >49 years will be excluded. Those who last delivered a child over twelve months ago will be excluded from survey questions specific to recently pregnant women, but may answer questions related to community perception or general demographics. For qualitative research, the same criteria will be used.

Health facility providers: Those who have been working in the health service for less than six months will not be interviewed due to low levels of relevant experience or exposure to the intervention.

HSAs: All HSAs are eligible to participate.

Terms in these criteria, in plain language(1)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
1,447 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • No intervention
    Control

    IPTp delivered at antenatal clinic

  • Experimental
    Intervention

    IPTp delivered by HSAs

    Other: IPTp delivered by HSAs

Interventions

  • OtherIPTp delivered by HSAs

    Pregnant women will have the option to receive IPTp-SP from Health surveillance assistants (HSAs). SP is recommended in Malawi for prevention of malaria during pregnancy, but currently it is only available at antenatal clinics.

    Also known as: community IPTp (cIPTp)

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. 3 or more doses of IPTp (IPTp3+)

    Proportion of recently pregnant women who received at least 3 doses of IPTp

    Time frame: through study completion, 18 months

Secondary outcomes

  1. IPTp doses received

    Proportion of women who received 1, 2, or 4 or more dose of IPT

    Time frame: through study completion, 18 months

  2. IPTp doses delivered by ANC

    Proportion of doses delivered by the HSA vs at the ANC

    Time frame: through study completion, 18 months

  3. Total ANC visits

    proportion of women who made 1, 2, 3, 4, or more ANC visits

    Time frame: through study completion, 18 months

  4. Gestational age at first IPTp

    gestational age at the time of first ANC and at 1st dose of IPTp

    Time frame: through study completion, 18 months

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Malaria Alert Center, University of Malawi College of Medicine
    Liwonde, Malawi
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Okeibunor JC, Orji BC, Brieger W, Ishola G, Otolorin E', Rawlins B, Ndekhedehe EU, Onyeneho N, Fink G. Preventing malaria in pregnancy through community-directed interventions: evidence from Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Malar J. 2011 Aug 5;10:227. doi: 10.1186/1475-2875-10-227. PubMed 21819579 ↗
  • Ndyomugyenyi R, Tukesiga E, Katamanywa J. Intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp): participation of community-directed distributors of ivermectin for onchocerciasis improves IPTp access in Ugandan rural communities. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 2009 Dec;103(12):1221-8. doi: 10.1016/j.trstmh.2009.03.006. Epub 2009 May 20. PubMed 19467686 ↗
  • Mbonye AK, Magnussen P, Bygbjerg IB. Intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy: the effect of new delivery approaches on access and compliance rates in Uganda. Trop Med Int Health. 2007 Apr;12(4):519-31. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2007.01819.x. PubMed 17445143 ↗
  • Msyamboza KP, Savage EJ, Kazembe PN, Gies S, Kalanda G, D'Alessandro U, Brabin BJ. Community-based distribution of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine for intermittent preventive treatment of malaria during pregnancy improved coverage but reduced antenatal attendance in southern Malawi. Trop Med Int Health. 2009 Feb;14(2):183-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2008.02197.x. Epub 2009 Jan 15. PubMed 19207178 ↗
  • Gies S, Coulibaly SO, Ky C, Ouattara FT, Brabin BJ, D'Alessandro U. Community-based promotional campaign to improve uptake of intermittent preventive antimalarial treatment in pregnancy in Burkina Faso. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2009 Mar;80(3):460-9. PubMed 19270299 ↗
  • Rubenstein BL, Chinkhumba J, Chilima E, Kwizombe C, Malpass A, Cash S, Wright K, Troell P, Nsona H, Kachale F, Ali D, Kaunda E, Lankhulani S, Kayange M, Mathanga DP, Munthali J, Gutman JR. A cluster randomized trial of delivery of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy at the community level in Malawi. Malar J. 2022 Jun 21;21(1):195. doi: 10.1186/s12936-022-04216-4. PubMed 35729612 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jul 26, 2021, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03376217
Lead sponsor
Kamuzu University of Health Sciences
Collaborators
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ministry of Health, Malawi, Peace Corps, Management Sciences for Health, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Responsible party
Julie Gutman (Medical epidemiologist, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences) — Principal investigator
First posted
Dec 18, 2017
Start date
Dec 1, 2017
Primary completion
Aug 30, 2020
Completion
Aug 30, 2020
Last update
Jul 26, 2021

Study contacts

Jobiba Chinkhumba, MBBS PhD
principal investigator · Malaria Alert Center, Malawi College of Medicine
Julie Gutman, MD MSc
principal investigator · Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Jul 2021. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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