Change starts at Home: Evaluating a multicomponent social behaviour change communication strategy to reduce intimate partner violence among married couples in Nepal

Change Start at Home is a multi-component social behavior change communication strategy intervention designed to shift attitudes, social norms and behaviors that underpin the power imbalances which increase women's vulnerability to marital IPV. Recognizing the social ecology of IPV, the intervention engages actors across multiple domains of influence, including family members and community leaders, in addition to the primary target audience of reproductive age women and their husbands. As a social behavior change strategy, the intervention approaches IPV prevention through three key approaches: advocacy, social mobilization, and behavior change communication.
The Change trial was a pair-matched, repeated cross-sectional 2-armed, single-blinded cluster trial, comparing a social behavior change communication strategy to radio programming alone for its impact on physical and/or sexual IPV in three districts of the Terai region in Nepal. Repeat-cross sectional surveys were conducted pre-intervention and at 12 months and 24 months post intervention. The details of the study protocol can be found at ( Clark, CJ et al: BMC Publ. Health 17 (1), 75. )