Brief | PDF 740 KB
Date of Publication | November 2025
DataDENT carried out formative research in Ethiopia (ET) and Bangladesh (BD) in 2023-2024 to design, test, and refine household survey questions and visual aids to measure coverage of maternal micronutrient supplements during pregnancy. We present methods and key findings for the three research phases: Phase I. Comprehensive Landscaping, Phase II. Survey Question and Visual Aid Design; and Phase III. Iterative Testing and Refinement.
Key Findings:
- Micronutrient product recognition: Women in Ethiopia (ET) & Bangladesh (BD) recognized a limited number of the prenatal micronutrient products available in urban settings; the English term “iron” was used regardless of actual formulation (e.g., IFA or MMS); branding and packaging were critical for product recognition
- Question design: Shorter recall periods for pill adherence were feasible for currently pregnant women (7 days in ET, 1 month in BD)
- Visual aid design: Visual aids helped women differentiate between products based on pill color, shape, and/or packaging, but it was challenging to group images into categories that women understood
- Posing questions to currently pregnant women might improve the validity of adherence recall; validation against a gold standard is needed
- To facilitate monitoring, countries need to distinctively brand MMS compared to IFA and intensively promote it to increase product recognition
