title: Community resource centres to improve the health of women and children in Mumbai slums: study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The trial addresses the general question of whether community resource centers run by a non-government organization improve the health of women and children in slums. The resource centers will be run by the Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action, and the trial will evaluate their effects on a series of public health indicators. Each resource center will be located in a vulnerable Mumbai slum area and will serve as a base for salaried community workers, supervised by officers and coordinators, to organize the collection and dissemination of health information, provision of services, home visits to identify and counsel families at risk, referral of individuals and families to appropriate services and support for their access, meetings of community members and providers, and events and campaigns on health issues.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cluster randomized controlled trial in which 20 urban slum areas with resource centers are compared with 20 control areas. Each cluster will contain approximately 600 households and randomized allocation will be in three blocked phases, of 12, 12 and 16 clusters. Any resident of an intervention cluster will be able to participate in the intervention, but the resource centers will target women and children, particularly women of reproductive age and children under 5.The outcomes will be assessed through a household census after 2 years of resource center operations. The primary outcomes are unmet need for family planning in women aged 15 to 49 years, proportion of children under 5 years of age not fully immunized for their ages, and proportion of children under 5 years of age with weight for height less than 2 standard deviations below the median for age and sex. Secondary outcomes describe adolescent pregnancies, home deliveries, receipt of conditional cash transfers for institutional delivery, other childhood anthropometric indices, use of public sector health and nutrition services, indices of infant and young child feeding, and consultation for violence against women and children.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  ISRCTN Register: ISRCTN56183183Clinical Trials Registry of India: CTRI/2012/09/003004.
authors.affiliation: Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action, Urban Health Centre, Chota Sion Hospital, 60 Feet Road, Shahunagar, Dharavi, Mumbai 400017 Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Neena
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shah More
authors.forename: Sushmita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Das
authors.forename: Ujwala
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bapat
authors.forename: Mahesh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rajguru
authors.forename: Glyn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Alcock
authors.forename: Wasundhara
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.forename: Shanti
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pantvaidya
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Osrin
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information; D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D000328:Adult; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003151:Community Health Centers / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003150:Community Health Workers / Q000458:organization & administration; D003376:Counseling / Q000458:organization & administration; D005193:Family Planning Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000458:organization & administration; D006304:Health Status; D006792:House Calls; D006801:Humans; D017589:Immunization Programs / Q000458:organization & administration; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D011204:Poverty Areas; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000458:organization & administration; D012107:Research Design; D019037:Urban Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014932:Women's Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D055815:Young Adult