Research

Parivar Seva has conducted several operational and evaluative researches on various areas of sexual and reproductive health. Some of the important ones are:

  1. Clinical-cum-Socio-Behavioural Evaluative Study of Women seeking termination of early pregnancy, up to 56 days from last menstrual period (LMP) using abortion inducing drugs (a) combination of Mifepristone and Misoprostol oral, and (b) only Misoprostol vaginally. The objective was to find out the efficacy, safety, side-effects and acceptability of the abortion inducing drugs at a lower dosage regimen; also to evaluate whether the combination is better than the single drug regimen. The study was conducted at four Parivar Seva clinics (two in Delhi and one each in Agra and Jaipur) on 501 volunteers during a period of two years (April 2002 to April 2004), under financial support from the Government of India. The research revealed that combined drug regimen with lower dosage is well accepted and effective with very minimal side-effects. Based on this study, the combined drug with lower dose regimen is accepted by the Government of India and levelled as the method for medical abortion.
  1. Evaluative Study to Assess Better Route of Administration of Misoprostol for Abortion was conducted in four Parivar Seva clinics (two each in Delhi and Kolkata) from 2002 to 2004 on 676 clients, with financial support from Population Foundation. The study revealed that the effectiveness of sublingual administration of Misoprostol on day three, following oral intake of Mifepristone on day one, is a highly effective and safe route for conducting medical abortion.
  1. Evaluative Study on the Process of Abortion Using Medical Methods such as Misoprostol at home on day three by the clients who opted for the same. The study was conducted in 25 Parivar Seva clinics across 11 states with 3860 clients (1862 took in the clinic and 1404 at their home) for a period of two years. The findings revealed that most of the clients completely aborted by taking the second drug at home, only 5% of clients had continued either fully or partially and needed evacuation with MVA technique.
  1. Action Research is the feasibility for enhancing awareness of emergency contraceptive among clients and service providers and testing acceptance of branded packaging of suitable hormonal pill(s) for use as emergency contraceptive. The study was conducted in 11 Parivar Seva clinics in five states from May 2000 to July 2002, on 380 volunteers. The volunteers were mostly in the age group of 20 and 30 years (70%) with educational qualification of graduation and above in 66%, most of them had unprotected unplanned sexual intercourse (65%) and majority of them had no knowledge about an emergency contraceptive. The single hormone Levonorgestrel is found to be most effective than the combined two hormonal pills and accepted by all women.
  1. KAP (Knowledge, Attitude and Practice) Study of Clients who Opted for Abortion on the legality, safety, availability and accessibility of the services, a qualitative case study conducted in three regions in Odisha (north, south and central) with two districts in each, during the period of six months between April 2001 and September 2001. In this study, 23 clients opted for abortion and 22 abortion service providers (11 each from the public and private sector) were interviewed in depth. The study revealed that a majority of the women felt that abortion is illegal and is not provided at Government hospitals and, therefore, they resort to back street providers. None of them are aware about the MTP Act and safe abortion care services. Moreover, most of the providers although aware about MTP Act, are not clear about the need for registration of their clinic to provide safe abortion.
  1. Study on Feasibility of Implementation of PPP Model in strengthening STI/RTI management using syndromic approach with colour coded STI drug kits of NACO through allopathic and non-allopathic private doctors in the community. The study was conducted in the northern region of the country in three states (Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan) and one Union Territory (Chandigarh), during the period April 2008 to March 2009. The study intends to ensure widespread availability of colour coded STI drug kits of NACO in the community for treating STI/RTI by involving private allopathic and non-allopathic medical practitioners, following proper orientation to them on the subject. That was supported by awareness generation in the community on the problems of STI/RTI, its prevention and management; availability of services/providers in their vicinity. The intervention generated lots of interest amongst the community including both allopathic and non-allopathic service providers and the acceptors.
  1. Study on Knowledge, Perception and Acceptance of Female Condoms by couples opting for spacing method of contraception. The study was conducted between August, 16 and December, 15, 2007 for four months in two states (Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan) with two districts in each (Lucknow and Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Jaipur and Udaipur in Rajasthan) with financial support from Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust (HLFPPT). They also supplied the female condoms. During the project period, 2890 women were provided detailed information on female condoms including how to use one through 106 orientation meetings. Among them, 132 women accepted a female condom and used it with high level of satisfaction in 43% (used >3 to 4 times), 35% needed to negotiate with their partners and only 22% did not like the product.
  1. Situational Analysis of Pregnant Women, both adolescents and youth attending Parivar Seva clinics for abortion services in India. The study assessed their knowledge, attitude and practices on abortions and contraception including socio-cultural barriers, which govern access to abortion and other Reproductive Health services. The study was supported by WHO and conducted in 25 Parivar Seva Sanstha clinics, over a period of 12 months during 2011, through structured interview of 1885 adolescents and youth and 869 of their accompaniments (spouse & other relatives). Overall, the study revealed that a majority of the respondents were not aware about the legality of abortion services in India and expressed non-availability of safe abortion services both in public and private sector facilities. However, knowledge of contraception was found to be reasonably good.
  1. Assessment of the Skill of Community Health Workers (mainly ASHA) to diagnose pregnancy, eligibility and follow up care for early medical abortion clients and validation of assessment tools developed by WHO. The study was conducted at Udaipur district in Rajasthan and simultaneously at Parivar Seva and ARTH clinics for 12 months from August 2013 to July 2014 and supported by WHO. The study was conducted by recruiting 12 community health workers (mainly ASHA). WHO studied 258 clients opting for medical abortion and followed up 156 of them. The outcome revealed that with proper training, community health workers could pick up the knowledge and skill to identify early pregnancy using urine pregnancy test strips and could follow the clients at their home following administration of drugs at the health care facilities. They could also use the check list/assessment tools which were found to be user friendly.
  1. KAP (Knowledge, Attitude and Practice) Study on Emergency Contraceptives among sexually active married women seeking abortions in Delhi and reasons for its non-use. The study was conducted for a period of 9 months from February to October 2015, in collaboration with Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) and funded by Indian Council of Medical Research. The study was conducted at two Parivar Seva clinics in Delhi at Lajpat Nagar and Karkardooma, where 450 clients came for abortion services. They were interviewed using structured questionnaires regarding their knowledge, perception, availability of emergency contraceptive and the reasons for non-use.