A menstrual health intervention for self-help groups in rural Karnataka

JVK runs monthly education groups and has an established eligibility procedure for selecting participants. The selection process follows the guidelines set by JVK’s State Project Officer, Ms. Sangeetha, and focuses on specific Taluks within the selected districts. The Taluks selected for this study include Kadaba, Bantwala, Moodabidri, Mangalore, Belthangady, Puttur, and Guruvayankere.
Each Taluk consists of 25 JVK Centers, from which 13 -15 groups are selected based on quota sampling. The selection criteria include groups with a higher proportion of young women, newly constituted groups, groups that are easily accessible for travel, and recommendations from JVK Taluk coordinators. The selected JVK groups are then randomly assigned as treatment or control groups using simple random sampling to ensure balanced representation.

2024-08-19

2025-03-31

Uptake of the menstrual cup among groups with and without the free trial.
We have sufficient statistical power to detect changes in our key outcomes with 100 JVK groups comprising 3,000 members.
If any proposed subjects are children/minors, prisoners, pregnant women, those with physical or cognitive impairments, or others who are considered vulnerable to coercion or undue influence, state the rationale for their involvement.
We are working with women’s self-help groups, which largely consist of poor rural and Middle classwomen. Thus, most respondents will belong to this demographic.

We specifcially study the relationship between the accessibility of free trials and the increase in the uptake of menstrual cups.
The effect of free trials by peers (which we hypothesize will increase uptake) on the cup adoption rate among peers who did not receive a free trial.

Volunteering for a free trial, purchase rates among those interested in a free trial who did and who did not receive one.

Survey Details:
The survey covers demographic profile, household profile, menstrual hygiene practices, menstrual problems, attitudes, and knowledge
The survey takes place during a meeting at the center.
Privacy measures: Participants are asked to move to a place where nobody can overhear.
Participants write and mark answers themselves, and we explain/re-read questions if clarification is needed.
The survey is conducted using the FGD method.


Baseline Data Collection
Enumerators will be hired and trained, including instruction on IRB guidelines adapted from CPHS’s materials. After selecting the JVK groups, baseline data collection will proceed as follows:
At educational meetings, the group leader will announce random selection of some women for voluntary participation in a survey.
Surveys will be conducted in a private location or at a later scheduled time at the participant’s preference.
Enumerators will explain the survey’s content, covering menstrual practices, product usage, and attitudes towards menstruation.
Verbal informed consent will be obtained, and the survey will be conducted in Kannada.
Data will be collected using smartphones.

Approximately six months after the intervention, an endline survey identical to the baseline will be conducted. Professor Dhaneshwari will merge sales data with survey responses to analyze purchase behavior among different participant groups. Additionally, data will be collected on returned free trial cups for disposal tracking.

Not available

There is no deception. Some groups will receive the free sample earlier than others. This staggered roll-out is standard practice in marketing campaigns and NGO programs. JVK frequently implements educational programs that reach some meetings before others. For example, JVK marketed menstrual cups in two regions in 2022 before expanding elsewhere. Therefore, there is no need to disclose the randomized timing of free trials. Once results are available, JVK will receive a report and presentation outline to debrief all subjects about the research.

JVK women's meetings are the main randomization
Within a meeting, women interested in a free trial are the unit of randomization, It is clustered by meeting

Yes

25 JVK Centers

5000 women

50 JVK meetings in each arm