Knowledge and Practices Associated with Sexual and Reproductive Health among Slum Living Young Women: Impact of a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Md. Irfan Hossain, Population Council
Sigma Ainul, Population Council
Eashita Farzana Haque, Population Council
Ruchira Naved, ICDDR,B
Ashish Bajracharya, Population Council
Sajeda Amin, Population Council

This paper uses data from samples of 4,458 and 4,581 young females aged 15-29 from baseline and endline respectively - to evaluate the impact of the SAFE study on changes on sexual and reproductive health knowledge, practice and service utilization of the young females in urban slums of Dhaka. Difference-in-difference estimates were measured by taking a pair of interventions at a time for impact evaluation. Significant positive impact of sessions with female only arm and highly significant positive impact of female, male sessions’ arm over community awareness arm has been observed. The increased knowledge of MR, attributable to sessions with female only arm over community awareness, was found to be significant. For increasing usage rate of FP methods, impact of both male and female sessions found to be positive and highly significant. Overall, outreach services to women are more likely to be significant compared to reaching out to men.