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Mediating effects of inequitable gender norms on intimate partner violence and contraceptive use in a cluster randomized control trial in Niger: A causal inference mediation analysis

BACKGROUND: Gender inequity, a deeply-rooted driver of poor health globally, is expressed in society through gender norms, the unspoken rules that govern gender-related roles and behavior. The development of public health interventions focused on promoting equitable gender norms are gaining momentum...

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Autores principales: Boyce, Sabrina C, Minnis, AM, Deardorff, J, McCoy, SI, Goin, DE, Challa, S, Johns, NE, Aliou, S, Brooks, MI, Nouhou, A-M, Baker, H, Silverman, JG
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9882558/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36711886
http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.12.23284504
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author Boyce, Sabrina C
Minnis, AM
Deardorff, J
McCoy, SI
Goin, DE
Challa, S
Johns, NE
Aliou, S
Brooks, MI
Nouhou, A-M
Baker, H
Silverman, JG
author_facet Boyce, Sabrina C
Minnis, AM
Deardorff, J
McCoy, SI
Goin, DE
Challa, S
Johns, NE
Aliou, S
Brooks, MI
Nouhou, A-M
Baker, H
Silverman, JG
author_sort Boyce, Sabrina C
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Gender inequity, a deeply-rooted driver of poor health globally, is expressed in society through gender norms, the unspoken rules that govern gender-related roles and behavior. The development of public health interventions focused on promoting equitable gender norms are gaining momentum internationally, but there remain critical gaps in the evidence about how these interventions are working to change behavioral outcomes. METHODS: A four-arm cluster randomized control trial (cRCT) was conducted to evaluate the effects of the Reaching Married Adolescents in Niger (RMA) intervention on modern contraceptive use and intimate partner violence (IPV) among married adolescent girls and their husbands in Dosso, Niger (T1: 1042 dyads; 24 mos. follow-up: 737 dyads, 2016–2019). This study seeks to understand if changes in perceived inequitable gender norms among husbands are the mechanism behind effects on modern contraceptive use and IPV. We estimated natural direct and indirect effects via these gender norms using inverse odds ratio weighting. An intention-to-treat approach and a difference-in-differences estimator in a hierarchical linear probability model was used to estimate prevalence differences, along with bootstrapping to estimate confidence intervals. RESULTS: The total effects of the RMA small group intervention (Arm 2) is estimated to be an 8% reduction in prevalence of IPV [95% CI: −0.18, 0.01]. For this arm, the natural indirect effect through gender inequitable social norms is associated with a 2% decrease (95% CI: −0.07, 0.12), accounting for 22.3% of this total effect, and the natural direct effect with a 6% decrease (95% CI: −0.20, −0.02) in IPV. Of the total effect of the RMA household visit intervention (Arm 1) on contraceptive use (20% increase), indirect effects via inequitable gender norms were associated with an 11% decrease (95% CI: −0.18, −0.01) and direct effects with a 32% increase (95% CI: 0.13, 0.44) in contraceptive use. For the combination arm, of the total effects on contraceptive use (19% increase), indirect effects were associated with a 9% decrease (95% CI: −0.20, 0.02) and direct effects with a 28% increase (95% CI: 0.12, 0.46). CONCLUSION: The present study contributes experimental evidence that the small group RMA intervention reduced IPV partially via reductions in perceived inequitable gender norms among husbands. Evidence also suggests that increases in perceived inequitable gender norms resulted in decreased contraceptive use among those receiving the household visit intervention component. Not only do these results open the “black box” around how the RMA small group intervention may create behavior change to help inform its future use, they provide evidence supporting behavior change theories and frameworks that postulate the importance of changing underlying social norms in order to reduce IPV and increase modern contraceptive use.
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spelling pubmed-98825582023-01-28 Mediating effects of inequitable gender norms on intimate partner violence and contraceptive use in a cluster randomized control trial in Niger: A causal inference mediation analysis Boyce, Sabrina C Minnis, AM Deardorff, J McCoy, SI Goin, DE Challa, S Johns, NE Aliou, S Brooks, MI Nouhou, A-M Baker, H Silverman, JG medRxiv Article BACKGROUND: Gender inequity, a deeply-rooted driver of poor health globally, is expressed in society through gender norms, the unspoken rules that govern gender-related roles and behavior. The development of public health interventions focused on promoting equitable gender norms are gaining momentum internationally, but there remain critical gaps in the evidence about how these interventions are working to change behavioral outcomes. METHODS: A four-arm cluster randomized control trial (cRCT) was conducted to evaluate the effects of the Reaching Married Adolescents in Niger (RMA) intervention on modern contraceptive use and intimate partner violence (IPV) among married adolescent girls and their husbands in Dosso, Niger (T1: 1042 dyads; 24 mos. follow-up: 737 dyads, 2016–2019). This study seeks to understand if changes in perceived inequitable gender norms among husbands are the mechanism behind effects on modern contraceptive use and IPV. We estimated natural direct and indirect effects via these gender norms using inverse odds ratio weighting. An intention-to-treat approach and a difference-in-differences estimator in a hierarchical linear probability model was used to estimate prevalence differences, along with bootstrapping to estimate confidence intervals. RESULTS: The total effects of the RMA small group intervention (Arm 2) is estimated to be an 8% reduction in prevalence of IPV [95% CI: −0.18, 0.01]. For this arm, the natural indirect effect through gender inequitable social norms is associated with a 2% decrease (95% CI: −0.07, 0.12), accounting for 22.3% of this total effect, and the natural direct effect with a 6% decrease (95% CI: −0.20, −0.02) in IPV. Of the total effect of the RMA household visit intervention (Arm 1) on contraceptive use (20% increase), indirect effects via inequitable gender norms were associated with an 11% decrease (95% CI: −0.18, −0.01) and direct effects with a 32% increase (95% CI: 0.13, 0.44) in contraceptive use. For the combination arm, of the total effects on contraceptive use (19% increase), indirect effects were associated with a 9% decrease (95% CI: −0.20, 0.02) and direct effects with a 28% increase (95% CI: 0.12, 0.46). CONCLUSION: The present study contributes experimental evidence that the small group RMA intervention reduced IPV partially via reductions in perceived inequitable gender norms among husbands. Evidence also suggests that increases in perceived inequitable gender norms resulted in decreased contraceptive use among those receiving the household visit intervention component. Not only do these results open the “black box” around how the RMA small group intervention may create behavior change to help inform its future use, they provide evidence supporting behavior change theories and frameworks that postulate the importance of changing underlying social norms in order to reduce IPV and increase modern contraceptive use. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 2023-01-18 /pmc/articles/PMC9882558/ /pubmed/36711886 http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.12.23284504 Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) , which allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.
spellingShingle Article
Boyce, Sabrina C
Minnis, AM
Deardorff, J
McCoy, SI
Goin, DE
Challa, S
Johns, NE
Aliou, S
Brooks, MI
Nouhou, A-M
Baker, H
Silverman, JG
Mediating effects of inequitable gender norms on intimate partner violence and contraceptive use in a cluster randomized control trial in Niger: A causal inference mediation analysis
title Mediating effects of inequitable gender norms on intimate partner violence and contraceptive use in a cluster randomized control trial in Niger: A causal inference mediation analysis
title_full Mediating effects of inequitable gender norms on intimate partner violence and contraceptive use in a cluster randomized control trial in Niger: A causal inference mediation analysis
title_fullStr Mediating effects of inequitable gender norms on intimate partner violence and contraceptive use in a cluster randomized control trial in Niger: A causal inference mediation analysis
title_full_unstemmed Mediating effects of inequitable gender norms on intimate partner violence and contraceptive use in a cluster randomized control trial in Niger: A causal inference mediation analysis
title_short Mediating effects of inequitable gender norms on intimate partner violence and contraceptive use in a cluster randomized control trial in Niger: A causal inference mediation analysis
title_sort mediating effects of inequitable gender norms on intimate partner violence and contraceptive use in a cluster randomized control trial in niger: a causal inference mediation analysis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9882558/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36711886
http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.12.23284504
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