Population
Health
Well-Being
Malawi Behavioral Biases Study (MBBS)
Quick Facts
Location
Lilongwe, Malawi
Research Area
A randomized controlled trial with 782 women, with follow-ups through 2022
Leads
Mahesh Karra (Columbia/PopFam)
Partners
IDinsight and AFIDEP are prospective consortium collaborators as we seek to build and expand this trial in the next phase
The Specifics
What we are doing
What are doing
We're testing how the design of family planning counseling shapes women's choices - specifically, whether presenting a smaller, targeted set of contraceptive methods (based on a woman's stated preferences) and whether involving husbands or partners in counseling changes what method women choose and whether they follow through on it.
What We Learned
Learnings
Targeted counseling made women less likely to end up using their own originally stated ideal method - a reminder that simplifying choices doesn't automatically help women act on their preferences. Involving husbands in counseling increased the likelihood that women used their stated ideal method, but likely because that "ideal" came to reflect a blend of her preferences and her husband's rather than hers alone - a real trade-off between realizing a preference and preserving individual autonomy that we think is important for program design.
The Impact
Impact
The trial protocol is published in JMIR Research Protocols, and the main findings in the Journal of Development Economics (2025). The findings are shaping how we and our partners think about the role of male engagement in family planning counseling design, and policy briefs have been shared with Malawi's Ministry of Health and Reproductive Health Directorate.
Research & Publications
