Karra Publishes Research on User-Centered Family Planning
Mahesh Karra, Assistant Professor of Global Development Policy at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and Associate Director of the Human Capital Initiative at the Global Development Policy Center, published a paper in JMIR Research Protocols on his ongoing field study that in Malawi.
The paper, titled “User-Centered Counseling and Male Involvement in Contraceptive Decision Making: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial,” was co-authored by Karra and Kexin Zhang, a PhD candidate at BU’s Department of Economics.
Karra and Zhang conducted a multiarmed randomized controlled trial to identify the causal impact of user-centered approaches to family planning counseling on women’s contraceptive decision making in urban Malawi. Their aim was to determine how a tailored, preference-driven approach to family planning counseling and the involvement of male partners during the counseling process may contribute to shaping women’s contraceptive preferences and choices. The full paper can be read online.
On April 6, 2021, the two presented preliminary findings from this study at the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) Health Economics Research Seminar. Their presentation is available online.
Mahesh Karra’s academic and research interests are broadly in development economics, health economics, quantitative methods, and applied demography. His research utilizes experimental and non-experimental methods to investigate the relationships between population, health, and economic development in low- and middle-income countries. Read more about Professor Karra on his faculty profile.