Do mothers and fathers report fathers’ support for maternal, newborn and child health services differently?

During pregnancy and postpartum, fathers’ active support for their partner’s and baby’s health is an effective mechanism to increase uptake of essential health services and improve home care practices. There is a rapidly growing evidence base exploring the effectiveness of various strategies to increase fathers’ support. However, measuring the effectiveness of strategies requires reliable indicators – including, crucially, reliable indicators of the level of support provided by fathers. While most studies report data from either women or men, in the few studies that report data from couples, there are often important differences in the support women report they receive and the support men report they provide. In this project, a student will analyse a dataset from a cluster-randomised controlled trial in rural Zimbabwe, containing data from couples before and after an intervention designed to increase fathers’ support for MNCH. Preliminary analysis indicates important differences in women’s and men’s reports of fathers’ support. The project will involve statistical analysis to explore these differences, and test reported levels of support against potential correlates relating to men’s gender attitudes, gender dynamics within the couple relationship, and maternal and newborn health outcomes. The project may also involve exploring discordance in men’s and women’s reports of other aspects of couple communication and decision-making. The student will work with the Global Women’s and Newborn’s Health Group at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne (primarily desk-based research). This project would allow a student to gain experience in gender theory and quantitative analysis methods, with a view to a scientific publication. The findings will be a novel contribution to the literature. They will be critical for programmers and policymakers seeking to interpret the existing evidence base, as well as health researchers developing future studies.