Prioritizing Health Care Strategies to Reduce Childhood Mortality
Importance: Although child mortality trends have decreased worldwide, deaths among children younger than 5 years of age remain high and disproportionately circumscribed to sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. Tailored and innovative approaches are needed to increase access, coverage, and quality of child health care services to reduce mortality, but an understanding of health system deficiencies […]
How do health extension workers in Ethiopia allocate their time?
Background: Governments are increasingly reliant on community health workers to undertake health promotion and provide essential curative care. In 2003, the Government of Ethiopia launched the Health Extension Programme and introduced a new cadre, health extension workers (HEWs), to improve access to care in rural communities. In 2013, to inform the government’s plans for HEWs […]
Prevalence and multi-level factors associated with acute malnutrition among children aged 6–59 months from war affected communities of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia, 2021: a cross-sectional study
Background: Armed conflicts greatly affect the health, nutrition, and food security of conflict affected settings particularly children. However, no empirical data exist regarding context specific factors contributing towards acute malnutrition in the war-torn Tigray, Ethiopia. Thus, this study aimed to identify individual and community level factors associated with acute malnutrition among children aged 6–59 months from […]
Association of whole blood n-6 fatty acids with stunting in 2-to-6-year-old Northern Ghanaian children: A cross-sectional study
In Northern Ghana, 33% of children are stunted due to economic disparities. Dietary fatty acids (FA) are critical for growth, but whether blood FA levels are adequate in Ghanaian children is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the association between whole blood FAs and growth parameters in Northern Ghanaian children 2–6 years […]
Secondary analysis of retrospective and prospective reports of adverse childhood experiences and mental health in young adulthood: Filtered through recent stressors
Background: Evidence has identified the detrimental effects that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have on outcomes across the life course. We assess associations between prospective and retrospective ACEs and mental health in young adulthood and the influence of recent stressors. Methods: Secondary analysis of a sample of 1592 young adults from the Birth to Twenty Plus […]
Increasing facility delivery through maternity waiting homes for women living far from a health facility in rural Zambia: a quasi-experimental study
Objective: To report on the effectiveness of a standardised core Maternity Waiting Home (MWH) model to increase facility deliveries among women living >10 km from a health facility. Design: Quasi-experimental design with partial randomisation at the cluster level. Setting: Seven rural districts in Zambia. Population: Women delivering at 40 health facilities between June 2016 and August […]
Primary healthcare and school health service utilisation by adolescents and young adults in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Background: Young people aged 10-24 years are a vulnerable group with poor health service access relative to other populations. Recent South African initiatives, the She Conquers campaign, the Integrated School Health Policy and the Adolescent & Youth Health Policy, include a focus on improving the breadth and quality of youth-friendly health service delivery. However, in […]
Treatment-seeking and uptake of malaria prevention strategies among pregnant women and caregivers of children under-five years during COVID-19 pandemic in rural communities in South West Uganda: a qualitative study
Background: Despite efforts to avert the negative effects of malaria, there remain barriers to the uptake of prevention measures, and these have hindered its eradication. This study explored the factors that influence uptake of malaria prevention strategies among pregnant women and children under-five years and the impact of COVID-19 in a malaria endemic rural district […]
Application of Intervention Mapping to develop a community-based health promotion pre-pregnancy intervention for adolescent girls in rural South Africa: PROJECT Ntshembo (Hope)
Background: South Africa (SA) is undergoing multiple transitions with an increasing burden of non-communicable diseases and high levels of overweight and obesity in adolescent girls and women. Adolescence is key to addressing trans-generational risk and a window of opportunity to intervene and positively impact on individuals’ health trajectories into adulthood. Using Intervention Mapping (IM), this […]
Motivation and incentive preferences of community health officers in Ghana: An economic behavioral experiment approach
Background: Health worker shortage in rural areas is one of the biggest problems of the health sector in Ghana and many developing countries. This may be due to fewer incentives and support systems available to attract and retain health workers at the rural level. This study explored the willingness of community health officers (CHOs) to […]
