BACKGROUND Early marriage and early childbearing are highly prevalent in Niger with 75% of girls married before age 18 years and 42% of girls giving birth between ages 15 and 18 years. In 2012, only 7% of all 15-19-year-old married adolescents (male and female) reported use of a modern contraceptive method with barriers including misinformation, and social norms unsupportive of contraception. To meet the needs of married adolescents and their husbands in Niger, the Reaching Married Adolescents (RMA) program was developed with the goal of improving modern contraceptive method uptake in the Dosso region of Niger. METHODS Using a four-arm cluster randomized control design, the RMA study seeks to assess whether household visits only (Arm 1), small group discussions only (Arm 2), or a combination of both (Arm 3), as compared to controls (no intervention - Arm 4), improve modern contraceptive method use among married adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), age 13-19 years-old, in three districts of the Dosso region. Intervention conditions were randomly assigned across the three districts, Dosso, Doutchi, and Loga. Within each district, eligible villages were assigned to either that intervention condition or to the control condition (12 intervention and 4 control per district). Across the three intervention conditions, community dialogues regarding modern contraceptive use were also implemented. Data for the study was collected at baseline (April - June 2016), at 24 months post-intervention (April - June 2018), and a final round of data collection will occur at 40 months post-intervention (October - December 2019). DISCUSSION The RMA intervention is a gender-synchronized and community-based program implemented among married adolescent girls and their husbands in the context of rural Niger. The intervention is designed to provide education about modern contraception and to promote gender equity in order to increase uptake of modern contraceptive methods. Results from this cluster randomized control study will contribute to the knowledge base regarding the utility of male engagement as a strategy within community-level approaches to promote modern contraceptive method use in the high need context of West Africa. TRIAL REGISTRATION Registered October 2017 - ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03226730.

中文翻译：

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对已婚青少年进行整群随机评估的方案——一项性别同步干预措施，旨在增加尼日尔已婚少女和年轻妇女及其丈夫现代避孕药具的使用。

背景 尼日尔早婚早育现象非常普遍，75% 的女孩在 18 岁之前结婚，42% 的女孩在 15 岁至 18 岁之间生育。2012年，所有15-19岁已婚青少年（男性和女性）中只有7%报告使用现代避孕方法，其障碍包括错误信息和不支持避孕的社会规范。为了满足尼日尔已婚青少年及其丈夫的需求，制定了“接触已婚青少年”(RMA) 计划，旨在提高尼日尔多索地区对现代避孕方法的采用率。方法 RMA 研究采用四组整群随机对照设计，旨在评估与对照组相比，是否仅进行家庭访问（第 1 组）、仅进行小组讨论（第 2 组）或两者相结合（第 3 组）。无干预 - 第 4 组），改善多索地区三个地区 13-19 岁已婚少女和年轻女性 (AGYW) 对现代避孕方法的使用。干预条件是在多索、杜奇和洛加三个区随机分配的。在每个区内，符合条件的村庄被分配到干预条件或控制条件（每个区 12 个干预村和 4 个控制村）。在这三种干预条件下，还开展了有关现代避孕药具使用的社区对话。该研究的数据是在基线（2016年4月至6月）、干预后24个月（2018年4月至6月）收集的，最后一轮数据收集将在干预后40个月（2019年10月至12月）进行。讨论 RMA 干预是一项性别同步、基于社区的计划，在尼日尔农村地区的已婚少女及其丈夫中实施。该干预措施旨在提供现代避孕教育并促进性别平等，以提高现代避孕方法的采用率。这项整群随机对照研究的结果将有助于建立关于男性参与作为社区层面方法中的一项策略的效用的知识库，以促进西非高需求背景下现代避孕方法的使用。试验注册 2017 年 10 月注册 - ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03226730。