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The problem
Intervention: Encouraging father involvement during pregnancy and after birth through attendance at antenatal care and provision of paternal support
Who it was tested with: 212 mother-baby pairs in Soweto, South Africa, within a larger randomised controlled trial.
Children or communities are compared with a group that did not receive the intervention, or followed over years. This is the design that best separates what the intervention did from everything else that changed.
"Within a larger randomised controlled trial, we assessed whether father involvement during and after pregnancy increased birth weight and exclusive breastfeeding through improved maternal mental health. At 6-week postnatal, mothers completed questionnaires on birth, feeding practices, social support, father involvement and postnatal depression." This represents an experimental design embedded within an RCT, though the analysis presented is cross-sectional at one timepoint, measuring associations between father involvement and outcomes.
The study is limited to a single timepoint (6 weeks postnatally) and cannot determine causality. It is unclear whether the interventions tested in the larger trial specifically targeted father involvement or what the nature of the intervention was. The very low paternal attendance rates suggest implementation challenges that may have affected intervention effectiveness.
Across countries and designs
1 study · 1 country
