SBCC Research

HC3 synthesized current evidence and tested new approaches in HIV programming through the publication of two Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (JAIDS) supplements and several studies. In 2014, HC3 sponsored a special JAIDS supplement devoted to health communication and its impact on HIV prevention and care. It was the first collection of Open Access articles providing evidence of health communication’s impact on HIV prevention and included thirteen articles. In 2017, another JAIDS supplement was published consisting of ten articles that make the case for using health communication in highly diverse HIV contexts along the HIV continuum of care.

Additional HC3 studies have looked closely at a critical HIV prevention tool: voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC). This includes a literature review identifying VMMC implications for male adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa, a study on the quality of counseling within adolescent VMMC services and a commentary for scaling up and sustaining VMMC HIV prevention benefits. HIV program evaluations include stigma reduction strategies in Mozambique, early childhood development in Swaziland, social marketing of condom use in Zimbabwe and male engagement strategies for improving treatment initiation and ongoing retention in care Côte d’Ivoire. HC3 also created a compelling package of evidence for health communication on HIV prevention outcomes and synthesized evidence of the impact of community-level factors. 

In 2013, HC3 collaborated with USAID and UNICEF to convene the Evidence Summit on Enhancing Child Survival and Development in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries by Achieving Population-Level Behavior Change. For the Summit, evidence review teams examined published peer-reviewed and gray literature across a wide range of social and behavior change dimensions impacting child survival and development. HC3’s research contributed to the evidence review of community engagement and the role of health systems and policy for child survival.

HC3 conducted another evidence review on demand for the 13 underutilized life-saving commodities identified by the UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women’s and Children’s Health. The report synthesizes effective practices in implementing demand generation programs and includes a series of spotlights for each commodity. HC3’s research also examined the effect of antenatal care counseling and spouse communication on RMNCH-related behaviors and evaluates community engagement approaches used to re-generate demand in countries impacted by the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

The impact of SBCC for malaria outcomes has not yet been fully captured in literature. HC3 worked with local ministries and implementing partners to explore existing data sets and analyzed factors influencing net use in Liberia and the impact of SBCC on net use in Nigeria. HC3’s malaria research investigated multi-level correlates of other malaria prevention behaviors including care-seeking for children with fever, malaria prophylaxis during pregnancy and artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) treatment across Liberia, Nigeria, Madagascar and Mali.

As the Secretariat of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Community of Practice working group, HC3 helped create an indicator reference guide for designing and monitoring malaria SBCC interventions. HC3 also conducted desk reviews on malaria case management and malaria in pregnancy and reviewed over 400 articles to create a package of evidence including an online database, fact sheets and infographics.

During the West Africa Ebola outbreak (2014), HC3’s research activities gathered important insights about Ebola knowledge, attitudes and practices to better inform intervention design. HC3 also contributed to research activities evaluating the Ebola response, the risk communication response, the use of SMS-based Ebola surveys and stigma SBCC activities in affected countries.

As the crisis waned, research shifted focus to assess post-Ebola attitudes and trust in the health system. These studies were used to inform post-Ebola campaigns that re-generated demand for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health services. Assessments were also conducted for Ebola communication preparedness in Côte d’Ivoire and knowledge management needs of government health workers in Sierra Leone. To examine the successes and challenges of SBCC work during the Ebola epidemic in a single issue, HC3 also developed a special issue of the International Journal of Health Communication, focused on Ebola.

Two months after WHO declared Zika a public health emergency of international concern, HC3 mobilized a team of experts to conduct an SBCC landscape exercise in four Central American countries: Honduras, El Salvador, Dominican Republic and Guatemala. The HC3 Zika team examined SMS survey data to assess Zika knowledge and prevention behavior and social media feedback related to each country’s Zika communication campaigns. Qualitative research on Zika prevention methods was also conducted. These analyses were used to shape the Zika communication strategies at the national level for these four priority countries.

In Guatemala, HC3 worked with partners from 18 USAID-funded projects to develop an overall brand identity and SBCC strategy for the Western Highlands Integrated Program (WHIP) which integrates health, family planning, income generation, nutrition, education, local governance, water and agriculture. To inform the comprehensive strategy, HC3 designed three landscaping studies to better understand how the powerful forces of religion, mobile phone ownership and use, social media and internet use and radio programming can be better utilized to promote healthy behaviors in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. HC3 also accompanied their review of USAID’s programmatic portfolio with a literature review and research on priority health and social issues in the Western Highlands.