Educating Religious Leaders - Village Men 3x More Likely to Be Circumcised

Strategy researched

Male circumcision outreach activities that included the involvement of Christian church leaders in the promotion of male circumcision after they were given training on circumcision and given tools to lead their congregation in the understanding and practice of male circumcision

Impact achieved

In the intervention villages, 52.8% (30,889 of 58,536) of men were circumcised compared with 29.5% (25,484 of 86,492) of men in the 8 control villages (odds ratio 3.2 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.4-7.3]; p=0.006).

Country of study

Tanzania

Research methodology

RCT

Journal

The Lancet; 2017

Journal paper title and link

Educating religious leaders to promote uptake of male circumcision in Tanzania: a cluster randomised trial

Excerpt from Abstract

"Education of religious leaders had a substantial effect on uptake of male circumcision, and should be considered as part of male circumcision programmes in other sub-Saharan African countries. This study was conducted in one region in Tanzania; however, we believe that our intervention is generalisable. We equipped church leaders with knowledge and tools, and ultimately each leader established the most culturally-appropriate way to promote male circumcision. Therefore, we think that the process of working through religious leaders can serve as an innovative model to promote healthy behaviour, leading to HIV prevention and other clinically relevant outcomes, in a variety of settings."