NCT01047033

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

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 2,453 (actual)
• Sponsor: Innovations for Poverty Action · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: —

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.

Conditions

• Child Health Status

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Health education	30 minutes of a health education module delivered to clients by loan officers during monthly repayment meetings, over the course of 8 months.
OTHER	Microcredit	Small loans administered to clients through the collaborating microcredit organization, to be repaid monthly over the course of six months in the context of monthly loan group meetings.

Timeline

• Start date: 2007-01-01
• Primary completion: 2008-02-01
• Completion: 2008-02-01
• First posted: 2010-01-12
• Last updated: 2010-01-12

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Peru