Results of a Community Randomized Trial of Microcredit and Health Services Interventions in Rural Bangladesh

Stan Becker, Johns Hopkins University
Ruhul Amin, Johns Hopkins University
Nirali M. Shah, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

A community randomized intervention trial was carried out between Nov 2006 and August 2009 in 128 relatively remote villages in three Divisions of Bangladesh. The trial was a 4-celled design and the two interventions were increased microcredit activity by Grameen Bank and addition of health services (a village health worker and two satellite clinics in the village each month). A baseline survey of 3900 households in the villages was done in Sept-Oct 2006 and a follow-up survey is being carried out in the same households in the fall of 2009. The main outcome measures are women’s empowerment, use of preventive and curative health care (e.g. use of trained birth attendants; use of ORS for childhood diarrhea) and contraceptive use. Preliminary results from the followup survey indicate that over 90% of the households from 2006 have been located and tracking procedures will locate more.