Association between coordinated counseling from both ASHA and Anganwadi Workers and maternal health outcomes: A cross-sectional study from Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, India

Community Health Workers (CHWs) play crucial roles in health promotion and services in rural India. Previous research investigating the effectiveness of coordinated health promotion by different community health workers (CHWs) cadres on health practices is scarce. This study examines the effectiveness of coordinated health promotion by different CHW cadres, specifically Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) and Anganwadi Workers (AWW), on maternal health outcomes. Using endline data from a 2019 impact evaluation of 6635 mothers with children <12 months in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, we compared the association between standalone and coordinated counseling by ASHA and AWW on various maternal health practices. Outcomes included four or more antenatal care visits, birth preparedness, institutional delivery, postnatal care visits, and contraceptive uptake. Fixed effects logistic regression with robust standard errors, corrected for multiple hypothesis tests, was used for analysis. Results showed that 39.6% of women received four or more ANC visits, 31.2% adopted birth preparedness practices, 79.6% had institutional deliveries, 23.3% received postnatal care, and 19.5% adopted a postpartum contraceptive method. Coordinated counseling from both ASHA and AWW was associated with a greater prevalence of four outcomes (birth preparedness, institutional delivery, PNC visit, and contraception) compared to standalone counseling from either ASHA or AWWs. These findings suggest that health promotion by AWW complements that of ASHA, collectively associated with improved health outcomes. This study underscores the effectiveness of coordinated health promotion and highlights the need for multisectoral and coordinated efforts among different CHW cadres at the community level. The results emphasize the importance of integrating various CHW roles to enhance maternal health practices and outcomes in rural India. Trial registration number: https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN83902145. Date of registration: 08/12/2016.