Testing a community derived intervention to promote women’s health: preliminary results of a 3-arm randomized controlled trial in Karachi, Pakistan

Depression and domestic abuse are serious problems for women throughout the world. There is some evidence that skills in economic independence may empower women in developing countries. There is a need to determine if such skill-building may help women to improve mental health and decrease victimization by domestic violence. A 3-arm randomized controlled trial tested the differential effectiveness of an 8-week community-derived intervention of Economic Skill Building (ESB), developed through community based participatory methods, and an empirically tested 8- week counseling model. Cluster random assignment was used to assign urban economically disadvantaged women in Pakistan to ESB, counseling, and control groups. Outcome measures included depression, measured by the Beck II, self-reports of abuse, self-efficacy as measured on the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and self-reported employment status. Twenty four women completed signed informed consent and completed outcome measures. Women in ESB (n=9) reported statistically significantly higher (p