The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
As of March 15 2025, The Communication Initiative (The CI) platform is operating at a reduced level, with no new content being posted to the global website and registration/login functions disabled. (La Iniciativa de Comunicación, or CILA, will keep running.) While many interactive functions are no longer available, The CI platform remains open for public use, with all content accessible and searchable until the end of 2025. 

Please note that some links within our knowledge summaries may be broken due to changes in external websites. The denial of access to the USAID website has, for instance, left many links broken. We can only hope that these valuable resources will be made available again soon. In the meantime, our summaries may help you by gleaning key insights from those resources. 

A heartfelt thank you to our network for your support and the invaluable work you do.
Time to read
less than
1 minute
Print
a- a+
Published 2 years ago
Last updated 2 years ago
Read so far

Nutrition Social Behaviour Change Communication - 87% of RCTs Reported a Significant Positive Effect on Early Initiation of Breastfeeding

0 comments

Strategy researched

Nutrition social behaviour change communication (NSBCC) interventions (interpersonal counselling, use of media (IEC materials, mass media, phone messaging), community mobilisation)

Impact achieved

Overall, almost two-thirds of the studies reported a significant positive effect on early initiation of breastfeeding (EIBF). Of the 38 cluster RCTs studies reporting on exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), 33 (87%) found a statistically significant positive impact. All studies across all study designs: 6 out of 13 (46%) RCTs measured or reported on EBF and of these, 5 (83%) found a significant positive effect. Twenty-two out of the 51 (43%) cluster randomised trials measured and reported on EBF and of these, 20 (91%) reported a statistically significant positive impact.

Countries of study

38 studies from Asia, 35 from Africa, 6 from South America, and 1 from Europe

Research methodology

Systematic review with 80 studies (51 cluster RCTs and 13 RCTs)

Journal

Maternal and Child Nutrition; 2021

Journal paper title and link

The effectiveness of interventions on nutrition social behaviour change communication in improving child nutritional status within the first 1000 days: Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis

Excerpt from Abstract

"The overall intervention's effect was significant for exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) (odds ratio = 1.73; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.35-2.11, p < 0.001), HAZ [height for age z-scores] (standardized mean differences [SMD] = 0.19; 95% CI: 0.17-0.21; p < 0.001), WHZ [weight for height z-scores] (SMD = 0.02; 95% CI: 0.004-0.04; p < 0.001), and WAZ [weight for age z-scores] (SMD = 0.04; 95% CI: 0.02–0.06; p < 0.001). Evidence shows the effectiveness of NSBCC in improving EBF and child anthropometric outcomes."