Evaluation of Impacts of Health Education for Children of Microcredit Clients in Peru

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Child Health Status
• Interventions: Other: Microcredit; Behavioral: Health education

• Registration Number: NCT01047033
• Lead Sponsor: Innovations for Poverty Action

Brief Summary

This purpose of this study is to determine whether a health education intervention for clients of a microcredit organization in Peru will improve health outcomes among clients and their children.

Detailed Description

An increasingly popular scheme for poverty alleviation is microcredit, the awarding of small loans to individuals too poor or too remote to take advantage of traditional lending services. Studies have repeatedly shown that income is one of the factors strongly associated with physical and mental wellbeing. Yet economic growth alone doesn't necessarily lead to healthier families, especially if basic health knowledge or health services are absent in the community. Microcredit institutions have recently tried to address this issue by supplementing banking-only microcredit programs with programs that include "tie-ins" or "add-ons" such as health education or health services. A rigorous evaluation of such "banking-plus" endeavors has not yet been conducted, leaving a gap in the knowledge base regarding whether these organizations are meeting their stated goals in catering to both economic and social needs. This study attempts to address this research question using a randomized controlled trial of a health education intervention to clients of a microcredit organization in Peru.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2007-01
• Primary Completion: 2008-02
• Study Completion: 2008-02
• Status Verified: 2010-01
• Study First Submitted: 2010-01-08
• Study First Submitted QC: 2010-01-11
• Last Update Submitted: 2010-01-11
• Study First Posted: 2010-01-12
• Last Update Posted: 2010-01-12

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 2453

Inclusion Criteria

• Subjects must be current clients of the collaborating microcredit organization
• Clients must be at least 18 years of age
• Children of clients must be less than 5 years of age
• Study participants must be able to speak and understand Spanish

Exclusion Criteria

• Only one client from any particular household may participate

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Microcredit only	Microcredit	-
Microcredit plus health education	Health education	Thirty minutes of a health education module administered to clients by loan officer at their monthly group meetings over the course of 8 months.
Microcredit plus health education	Microcredit	Thirty minutes of a health education module administered to clients by loan officer at their monthly group meetings over the course of 8 months.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Anthropometric measures including height, weight, and blood hemoglobin level	One year after intervention begins
Client health knowledge on a variety of issues related to child health (e.g. diarrhea, fever)	One year after intervention begins
Child health status as measured by a variety of indicators (e.g. days of diarrhea, presence of bloody diarrhea, presence of severe cough, days of fever, etc.)	One year after intervention begins

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Social support as measured by the Duke-UNC FSSQ	One year after intervention begins

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Innovations for Poverty Action; 🇵🇪 Pucallpa, Peru