Patient and public involvement
SECONDARY
We involved national and district level authorities from the Malian Ministry of Health and Social Development in the study design, implementation, and dissemination. We chose research questions (including an embedded costing analysis) and outcomes for the trial (including the primary outcome on under-five mortality) that were of key interest to our government partners. We also involved national and district health authorities in study site selection, including both the rural district within the country and the seven PHC catchment areas within the district. Within each catchment area, we held public consultation meetings with community representatives, including village chiefs and their advisors, women’s and youth association leaders, religious leaders, and politico-administrative authorities (such as mayors, PHC directors, and ASACOs), where we discussed and obtained verbal permission to conduct the trial. Communities nominated CHW candidates who participated in the training and provided a fixed health site for control arm CHWs, as well as a house if the CHW was not a resident of the village-cluster.Once we conducted the analysis on the trial’s primary and secondary endpoints, including child health and access to care, we held results dissemination workshops with local, district, regional, and national level stakeholders, starting at the district and local level with community representatives (as listed above), including study CHWs and their dedicated supervisors.