Evaluating the effect of maternal mHealth text messages on uptake of maternal and child health care services in South Africa: a multicentre cohort intervention study
Background: There are high expectations that mobile health (mHealth) strategies will increase uptake of health care services, especially in resource strained settings. Our study aimed to evaluate effects of an mHealth intervention on uptake of maternal health services. Methods: This was an intervention cohort study conducted at six public antenatal and postnatal care clinics in […]
Multiple anthropometric and nutritional deficiencies in young children in Ethiopia: a multi-level analysis based on a nationally representative data
Background: In Ethiopia, child undernutrition and anemia are major public health concerns, resulting in increased childhood morbidity and mortality. Despite progress made to reduce the prevalence of malnutrition (especially stunting) from 50% in 2000 to 38% in 2016, little is known about the magnitude and risk factors for concurrent nutritional deficiencies in Ethiopia. Methods: Analysis […]
Improving access to emergency obstetric care in underserved rural Tanzania: a prospective cohort study
Background: One of the key strategies to reducing maternal mortality is provision of emergency obstetric care services. This paper describes the results of improving availability of, and access to emergency obstetric care services in underserved rural Tanzania using associate clinicians. Methods: A prospective cohort study of emergency obstetric care was implemented in seven health centres […]
Pregnancy outcomes and blood pressure visit-to-visit variability and level in three less-developed countries
In pregnancy in well-resourced settings, limited data suggest that higher blood pressure (BP) visit-to-visit variability may be associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Included were pregnant women in 22 intervention clusters of the CLIP (Community- Level Interventions for Preeclampsia) cluster randomized trials, who had received at least 2 prenatal contacts from a community health worker, including […]
Determinants of stunting among children aged 6 to 59 months in pastoral community, Afar region, North East Ethiopia: Unmatched case control study
Background: Stunting is defined as a child with a height for-age Z-score less than minus two standard deviations. Globally, 162 million less than 5 years were stunted. In Ethiopia, Nationally the prevalence of stunting among under five children was 38.4% and in Afar it is above the national average (41.1%). This study was aimed to […]
Seasonal variation in the prevalence of acute undernutrition among children under five years of age in east rural Ethiopia: A longitudinal study
Background: Malnutrition is a deficiency state of both macro and micronutrients (under – nutrition) and their over consumption (over- nutrition) causing measurable adverse effects on human body structure and function, resulting in specific physical and clinical outcomes. Little has been known about the seasonal variation in the magnitude of acute child under-nutrition and its determinants […]
Recovering from COVID lockdowns: Routine public sector PHC services in South Africa, 2019-2021
Background. In a previous article on the impact of COVID-19, the authors compared access to routine health services between 2019 and 2020. While differential by province, a number of services provided, as reflected in the District Health Information System (DHIS), were significantly affected by the pandemic. In this article we explore the extent to which […]
Emtonjeni—A Structural Intervention to Integrate Sexual and Reproductive Health into Public Sector HIV Care in Cape Town, South Africa: Results of a Phase II Study
Integration of sexual and reproductive health within HIV care services is a promising strategy for increasing access to family planning and STI services and reducing unwanted pregnancies, perinatal HIV transmission and maternal and infant mortality among people living with HIV and their partners. We conducted a Phase II randomized futility trial of a multi-level intervention […]
Modeling the spatial patterns of antenatal care utilization in Nigeria with inference based on Pólya-Gamma mixtures
Despite the vast advantages of making antenatal care visits, the service utilization among pregnant women in Nigeria is suboptimal. A five-year monitoring estimate indicated that about 24% of the women who had live births made no visit. The non-utilization induced excessive zeroes in the outcome of interest. Thus, this study adopted a zero-inflated negative binomial […]
Group B streptococcus infection during pregnancy and infancy: estimates of regional and global burden
Background: Group B streptococcus (GBS) colonisation during pregnancy can lead to invasive GBS disease (iGBS) in infants, including meningitis or sepsis, with a high mortality risk. Other outcomes include stillbirths, maternal infections, and prematurity. There are data gaps, notably regarding neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI), especially after iGBS sepsis, which have limited previous global estimates. In this […]
