Feasibility and acceptability of a life skills and reproductive health empowerment interventionfor young newly married women in Rajasthan, India: A pre-post convergent mixed methods pilot study.

Background: Newly married young women face increased susceptibility to adverse health outcomes, social isolation, and disempowerment, yet interventions targeting this vulnerable group remain limited. We examined the feasibility and acceptability of TARANG, a life skills and reproductive health empowerment intervention, developed for and with young newly married women.

Methods: We recruited 42 newly married women as participants in our study. We conducted a convergent mixed-methods, single-group cluster pilot study to the intervention in which 41 participants (retention rate=97.6%) completed both baseline and endline surveys in July 2023 and January 2024, respectively. We assessed three primary outcomes--feasibility using proportion of participants who completed at least 50% sessions, acceptability using proportion completely satisfied/somewhat satisfied with TARANG and usefulness using proportion who found TARANG useful/somewhat useful. We conducted in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of 12 participants to understand intervention acceptance and usefulness of the intervention and 6 program staff and moderators to understand barriers to implementing the intervention. We analyzed the quantitative data with descriptive statistics and qualitative data using thematic analysis. We triangulated data from monitoring data filled by moderators, quantitative surveys with participants, and qualitative data.

Results: In the pilot study, 35/42 participants had completed at least one session. Overall, 82% participants attended at least 50% of the sessions. Among those who attended at least 1 session,97% were satisfied/somewhat satisfied with the intervention and 100% of participants found the intervention to be useful/somewhat useful. Qualitative findings reveal participants' appreciation for open discussions on sensitive topics, such as family planning, and highlight the intervention's role in filling knowledge gaps and fostering social connections, better sense of agency and improved relationships with mothers-in-law and husbands. While barriers to consistent participation were identified, feedback informed refinements to the intervention for the main trial, including session modifications, increased engagement strategies, and integration of educational videos.

Conclusion: Our community-based participatory approach, developed with input from end users, demonstrated not only high acceptability and feasibility but also had many benefits for newly married women in rural/tribal Rajasthan. Our findings also led to adaptations that may enhance delivery of, and satisfaction with TARANG intervention, which will be tested with a larger sample in a rigorous cluster randomized controlled trial in Rajasthan, India.

Clinicaltrialsgov: The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT06320964). Registered retrospectively on 13 March 2024, https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06320964.