Evaluating the feasibility of a group psychosocial intervention for migrant and host community women in Ecuador and Panama: protocol for a multi-site feasibility cluster trial

Background: Community- and strengths-based psychosocial interventions are central to mental health and psychosocial support guidelines, but rigorous evidence regarding the effectiveness of these interventions is limited. The complexity and variability that is inherent to many community-based psychosocial interventions requires innovative strategies in order to facilitate the comparability and synthesis across research studies without compromising the fit and appropriateness of interventions to specific study populations and context. Entre Nosotras is a community-based psychosocial intervention developed for migrant and host community women that is designed to be flexible enough to enable integration of external intervention components and adaptable to diverse study contexts and populations. This protocol describes a study that aims to evaluate the appropriateness, acceptability, and feasibility of integrating a standardized stress management intervention into Entre Nosotras.

Methods: This study will evaluate the appropriateness, acceptability, feasibility, and safety of intervention and research procedures for a cluster randomized comparative effectiveness trial conducted in Ecuador and Panama with migrant and host community women. In this feasibility trial, we will allocate communities nested within the three study sites to the integrated Entre Nosotras + stress management intervention versus Entre Nosotras alone through stratified randomization. Migrant and host community women residing in these study communities who report low to moderate levels of distress will be allocated to the intervention condition that their community is assigned (n = 220 total). We will collect quantitative measures of psychosocial wellbeing, psychological distress, coping, social support, and functioning from study participants. We will collect quantitative measures of fidelity and facilitator competencies through observation and facilitator self-assessment. Data on appropriateness, acceptability, feasibility, and safety will be gathered from participants and facilitators through quantitative assessments at 0, 5, and 10 weeks post-enrollment and qualitative interviews conducted with all facilitators and a subset of 70 study participants during the post-intervention follow-up period.

Discussion: Results from this feasibility trial will determine whether a multi-site cluster randomized comparative effectiveness trial of an adaptable community-based psychosocial intervention for migrant and host community women is relevant, acceptable, and feasible.