According to Prata and colleagues [16], community-based distribution of contraceptives (CBD) helps developing countries, particularly in hard-to-reach areas. Our study revealed some modifications to the original design of the community-based distribution of injectable contraceptive approaches to align the innovation delivery to users' preferences. Similar to other studies [16], our findings highlight the use of various mobile and fixed posts for contraceptive provision in a discrete manner, age-specific messaging, and one-on-one and group education meetings as part of a responsive CBD model. However, in our study, the model of CBD evolved as a result of, and in response to, contextual factors – mainly cultural and religious reasons, as Nigeria is generally a patriarchal and religious society [30]. Other studies show that common reasons for modifications to classical CBD include ensuring efficiency in service delivery, particularly when community needs surpass a program's capacity to deliver [31, 32]. In addition, when the community's preference was not initially understood or when there is a lack of support from local organizations and political leadership, modification to CBD delivery in injectable contraceptives might be imperative when the family planning market is saturated [16, 33]. This lack of support may manifest as inadequate funding or insufficient infrastructure for health workers [34].
Our study highlights that CBD does not exist in isolation but can only work in the local context - within the community's health infrastructures, particularly when initiating contraceptive use and treating adverse effects of contraceptives. However, studies [30–32] caution that the integration of CBD programs with existing health infrastructures might become impractical as the community's needs for contraceptives increase. This integration may necessitate bringing in more voluntary health workers focused on CBD.
Community volunteers were a significant part of the health workforce for the diffusion of the innovation in this study. There is, however, a divergent opinion in the literature about the desirability of volunteer health workers versus paid health workers in a program like CBDIC [16, 35], with some suggesting that it might be more challenging to hold volunteer health workers accountable for their actions [16]. However, Alam and colleagues [36] believe that community volunteers remain a great asset, particularly in many developing countries' inadequate human resources for health. Our study similarly shows that volunteers are essential for shoring up the human resource for health deficiency in northern Nigeria.
In addition, the volunteers in this study acted as peer influencers through their interactions with potential innovation users. Peer influence may encourage behavior change and can contribute to improved health status [37–41] for many health conditions, including breast cancer [42], cardiovascular diseases [43], diabetes [44], HIV [44], and reproductive health issues [45]. Peer influence is a potentially helpful measure to influence behavioral change in developing countries [46]. However, some research has shown ambivalent results about the effect of peer influence on behavioral health change [42, 47]. As seen in this study, engaging young women to interact with their peers can improve the uptake of community-based injectable contraceptives.
Furthermore, findings from this study show value in establishing a partnership with proprietary patent medicine vendors (PPMVs) to distribute injectable contraceptives. PPMVs, individuals who sell orthodox medicines in retail without formal pharmaceutical training [48, 49], are found everywhere in Nigeria [48, 50], and they are generally perceived to be more accessible and to provide quicker, more confidential, and cheaper services [50]. PPMVs in Nigeria and other developing countries have been reported to be engaged in the distribution of health commodities like emergency contraceptives [50], oral contraceptive pills [49], condoms, intrauterine devices [51], insecticide-treated nets [52], the treatment of sexually transmitted infections [53] and provision of health education [53]. Although PPMVs can play a pivotal role in distributing reproductive health products [53], a study in Southwest Nigeria revealed that their knowledge about reproductive health issues and products and drug dosing and treatment might be small [50]. Moreover, PPMVs comply poorly with the Federal Ministry of Health's guidelines on contraceptive dispensing [51].
Additionally, Ujuju and colleagues [49] reported, in a study done in four Nigerian states, that the quality of advice given by PPMVs fell short of the standards for safety. A systematic review by Beyeler and colleagues validated these findings [48]. Therefore, it has been suggested that PPMVs be formally integrated into Nigeria's sexual and reproductive management system [54], and their training is regularly updated [55], with continual supervision and monitoring, to improve safe access to reproductive health products like injectable contraceptives.
This study used mobile technology (phones) as a social marketing tool to ensure compliance. Social marketing is a high-impact and effective tool to maintain contraceptive knowledge and usage in sub-Saharan Africa [56, 57]. For example, Liu and colleagues [58], while detailing the role of the private sector in introducing injectable contraceptives in southwest Nigeria via social marketing, described how a combination of supply and demand-side measures were used to promote the innovation. These measures include the availability of quality products, behavior change campaigns, partnering with health worker associations, health worker training, and using traditional and online media [58].
Furthermore, our findings highlight that innovation delivery may not be successful without adequate community engagement [59]. The importance of community participation for the uptake and sustainability of health programs has been demonstrated in the literature [59, 60]. The role of community and religious leaders in understanding the community preferences and gaining acceptance for health innovation, particularly in developing countries, cannot be over-emphasized [59, 61]. Without this understanding, the objective of innovation delivery, particularly improved health access, might not be achieved [62].
Some limitations of this study should be stated. Since delivery of health innovations is contextual and the country is very diverse, innovation delivery that worked in northern Nigeria, where this study was primarily carried out, may not be practical or necessary in other country regions. Efforts to scale up health innovations should be tailored according to contextual realities at a local level. Nevertheless, this study provides valuable insights into innovation delivery and its possible influence on health innovations' diffusion and uptake, such as the community-based distribution of injectable contraceptives.