Andargie, Netsanet Belete
Debelew, Gurmesa Tura
Article History
Received: 14 September 2021
Accepted: 4 April 2022
First Online: 9 April 2022
Declarations
:
: The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and the proposal was reviewed and approved by the <i>Institutional Review Board of Jimma University</i> (IRB-JU) (IHRPGD/841/17), and by Amhara Public Health Institute. A formal letter with a detailed implementation plan for the intervention was sent to the Federal Ministry of Health and to Amhara Regional Health Office, and both organizations provided support letter.The study received ethical approval from the local IRB (Jimma University), as well as permission to obtain verbal consent from all participants. As a result, a trained data collector with a health background obtained verbal informed consent from all study participants. Interviewers used a Participant Information Sheet (PIS) and an Informed Consent Form (ICF) to provide a detailed explanation about the study’s goal, procedure, risk, and benefit to potential participants, and verbal consent was obtained from all participants prior to each interview. The ethics committee approved the procedure for obtaining verbal informed consent from all participants.In Ethiopia, most of the rural population did not attend formal education; similarly, more than half of the women of reproductive age in the study area, had no formal schooling. As result, the trained interviewers were responsible for providing a detailed information about the study as well as reading the consent for potential interviewees. Furthermore, the mobile-based data collection (Open data kit (ODK)) was configured to first determine whether the participant consented or not before proceeding with any of the study activities, and this was documented as a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ question. Participants who were volunteer and consented were included in the study. In addition, participants were informed to leave the study at any time if they want to. Ppotential participants who did not provide consent (non-study participants), were continued to receive routine care in the community or in the health facility as per the standard of care.This study included women of reproductive age (15–49 years). Because the ethics committee approves oral informed consent from all participants, this study obtained oral informed consent from all mothers, including those aged 15 to 16 years. The ethics committee approved verbal consent from these mothers, aged 15 to 16, because they were ‘mature minors’, living in and lead a married life apart from their parents/guardians and having at least one child.
: Not applicable.
: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.