FAMILY HEALTH AND WEALTH STUDY (FHWS)
Overview of Family Planning Plus Initiative (FP+):
The overreaching goal of the Family Planning-Plus Initiative (FP+) is to increase national commitment to and resources for family planning in low-income countries with significant levels of poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, and substandard maternal and child health, including poor reproductive health indicators, particularly unwanted fertility and unmet contraceptive need.
This initiative has two specific objectives:
(1) to provide research evidence of family planning’s benefits for family health and social development, and
(2) to raise the visibility of and commitment of family planning as a household-level behaviour and a necessary component of national development plans.
Background:
The FHWS is one component of the Family Planning Plus Initiative (FP+) and aims to examine individual and family level health and economic consequences of family size. The study proposes to locate a 500-family cohort in a peri-urban area in each country setting. In such an area contraceptive use experience is likely to be moderate so that related benefits at the household level of fewer child dependants are likely to be observable, measureable and causally linked over time.
The project is a multi country longitudinal study taking place in six (6) study sites in five (5) African countries namely Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda. Two of the study sites are located in Nigeria and are being handled by the two Gates Institute partner Institutions in the country i.e. University of Ibadan, Nigeria and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria respectively,
Study Site:
The study site selected for use by Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, is peri-urban town located in Ife North Local Government Area, Osun State.
Specific aims:
» Assess the effect of family size on individual and family-level health consequences.
» Assess the effect of family size on individual and family-level economic consequences.
Project duration:
The study is divided into four phases: Phase 1: Baseline study; Phase 2: Six (6) months after Baseline Study; Phase 3: Eighteen (18) months after Baseline; Phase 4: Thirty (30) months after Baseline study.
