Effect of a digital school-based intervention on adolescent family planning and reproductive health in Rwanda: a cluster-randomized trial

Nat Med. 2024 Nov;30(11):3121-3128. doi: 10.1038/s41591-024-03205-1. Epub 2024 Aug 23.

Abstract

We conducted a cluster-randomized hybrid effectiveness-implementation study of CyberRwanda, a digital family planning and reproductive health intervention for Rwandan adolescents. Sixty schools were randomized 1:1:1 to control or to one of two implementation models-self-service (self-guided access on tablets) or facilitated (peer-led clubs plus tablet access) with no masking. Eligible participants were aged 12-19 years, in secondary school levels 1 or 2, and willing to provide consent or assent/parental consent and contact information for follow-up. In 2021, 6,078 randomly selected adolescents were enrolled. At 24 months, 91.3% of participants were retained and included in the primary intention-to-treat analyses (control, n = 1,845; self-service, n = 1,849 and facilitated, n = 1,858). There were no adverse events related to the study. CyberRwanda did not affect the primary outcomes of modern contraceptive use (prevalence ratio (PR) = 1.04; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.76, 1.42), childbearing (PR = 1.33; 95% CI = 0.71, 2.50) and HIV testing (PR = 1.00; 95% CI = 0.91, 1.11) in the full sample. Significantly higher modern contraceptive use observed in the CyberRwanda facilitated arm in a prespecified analysis of sexually active participants suggests that longer-term evaluation is needed to examine effects as more of the study population becomes sexually active and has increased demand for contraception. ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT04198272 .

Publication types

  • Multicenter Study
  • Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Child
  • Contraception
  • Contraception Behavior
  • Family Planning Services*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Pregnancy
  • Reproductive Health*
  • Rwanda
  • School Health Services
  • Schools
  • Young Adult

Associated data

  • ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT04198272