The effects of geographical accessibility to health facilities on antenatal care and delivery services utilization in Benin: a cross-sectional study
Background: The world is making progress toward achieving maternal and child health (MCH) related components of the Sustainable Development Goals. Nevertheless, the progress of many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa is lagging. Geographical accessibility from residence to health facilities is considered a major obstacle hampering the use of appropriate MCH services. Benin, a country where the […]
Trends of infant mortality and its determinants in Ethiopia: mixed-effect binary logistic regression and multivariate decomposition analysis
Background: Infant mortality remains a serious global public health problem. The global infant mortality rate has decreased significantly over time, but the rate of decline in most African countries, including Ethiopia, is far below the rate expected to meet the SDG targets. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the trends of infant mortality and its […]
Obstetric Facility Quality and Newborn Mortality in Malawi: A Cross-Sectional Study
Background: Ending preventable newborn deaths is a global health priority, but efforts to improve coverage of maternal and newborn care have not yielded expected gains in infant survival in many settings. One possible explanation is poor quality of clinical care. We assess facility quality and estimate the association of facility quality with neonatal mortality in […]
Antenatal iron supplementation, FGF23, and bone metabolism in Kenyan women and their offspring: Secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial
Background: Fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF23) regulates body phosphate homeostasis primarily by increasing phosphaturia. It also acts as a vitamin D-regulating hormone. Maternal iron deficiency is associated with perturbed expression and/or regulation of FGF23 and hence might be implicated in the pathogenesis of hypophosphatemia-driven rickets in their offspring. Objectives: We aimed to determine the effect of […]
Nairobi Newborn Study: A protocol for an observational study to estimate the gaps in provision and quality of inpatient newborn care in Nairobi City County, Kenya
Introduction Progress has been made in Kenya towards reducing child mortality as part of efforts aligned with the fourth Millennium Development Goal. However, little advancement has been made in reducing mortality among newborns, which now accounts for 45% of all child deaths. The frequently unanticipated nature of neonatal illness, its severity and the high dependency […]
Feasibility of task-sharing with community health workers for the identification, emergency management and referral of women with pre-eclampsia, in Mozambique
Background: Maternal mortality is an important public health problem in low-income countries. Delays in reaching health facilities and insufficient health care professionals call for innovative community-level solutions. There is limited evidence on the role of community health workers in the management of pregnancy complications. This study aimed to describe the feasibility of task-sharing the initial […]
How multiple episodes of exclusive breastfeeding impact estimates of exclusive breastfeeding duration: report from the eight-site MAL-ED birth cohort study
The duration of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is often defined as the time from birth to the first non-breast milk food/liquid fed (EBFLONG), or it is estimated by calculating the proportion of women at a given infant age who EBF in the previous 24 h (EBFDHS). Others have measured the total days or personal prevalence of […]
Associations of maternal nutrition during pregnancy and post-partum with maternal cognition and caregiving
Pregnant and post-partum women require increased nutrient intake and optimal cognition, which depends on adequate nutrition, to enable reasoning and learning for caregiving. We aimed to assess (a) differences in maternal cognition and caregiving between women in Malawi who received different nutritional supplements, (b) 14 effect modifiers, and (c) associations of cognition and caregiving with […]
Child undernutrition and associated factors among children 6-23 months old in largely food insecure areas of rural Ethiopia
Child malnutrition is the leading public health problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in poor health and economic losses. Ethiopia has one of the highest child undernutrition rates in the world that occurs to multifaceted factors, including food insecurity. Thus, we performed a cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence and risk factors for child undernutrition in […]
Leveraging big data for improving the estimation of close to reality travel time to obstetric emergency services in urban low- and middle-income settings
Maternal and perinatal mortality remain huge challenges globally, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where >98% of these deaths occur. Emergency obstetric care (EmOC) provided by skilled health personnel is an evidence-based package of interventions effective in reducing these deaths associated with pregnancy and childbirth. Until recently, pregnant women residing in urban areas have […]
