Achieving equity in HIV-treatment outcomes: can social protection improve adolescent ART-adherence in South Africa?
Low ART-adherence amongst adolescents is associated with morbidity, mortality and onward HIV transmission. Reviews find no effective adolescent adherence-promoting interventions. Social protection has demonstrated benefits for adolescents, and could potentially improve ART-adherence. This study examines associations of 10 social protection provisions with adherence in a large community-based sample of HIV-positive adolescents. All 10–19-year-olds ever ART-initiated […]
Housing materials as predictors of under-five mortality in Nigeria: Evidence from 2013 demographic and health survey
Background: Nigeria is among countries with high Under-Five Mortality (U5M) rates worldwide. Both maternal and childhood factors have been linked to U5M in the country. However, despite the growing global recognition of the association between housing and quality of life, the role of housing materials as predictors of U5M remain largely unexplored in Nigeria. This […]
Prevalence and risk factors of neurological impairment among children aged 6-9 years: From population based cross sectional study in western Kenya
Background: The burden of disability is more severe among children in low income countries. Moreover, the number of children with disabilities (CWDs) in sub-Saharan Africa is predicted to increase with reduction in child mortality. Although the issue on CWDs is important in sub-Saharan Africa, there are few researches on risk factors of disabilities. The purpose […]
Socio-demographic and environmental determinants of under-5 stunting in Rwanda: Evidence from a multisectoral study
Child stunting is an important household, socio-economic, environmental and nutritional stress indicator. Nationally, 33% of children under 5 in Rwanda are stunted necessitating the need to identify factors perpetuating stunting for targeted interventions. Our study assessed the individual and community-level determinants of under-5 stunting essential for designing appropriate policy and program responses for addressing stunting […]
Testing strategies for couple engagement in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and family health in Kenya: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
Background: HIV-related maternal deaths and HIV infection among infants remain unacceptably high across sub-Saharan Africa despite increased antenatal care attendance and provision of antiretroviral therapy to pregnant women. In the Jamii Bora (“Better Family” in Swahili) Study, we seek to test the efficacy of an interdependence theory-based couple intervention. The intervention reaches pregnant women and […]
Improving maternal, newborn and women’s reproductive health in crisis settings
This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To identify, synthesise and evaluate the effects of health system and other interventions aimed at improving maternal, newborn and women’s reproductive health in crisis settings. We will include: We will only include cluster RCTs, non-randomised cluster trials, and […]
Child and adolescent mental health policy in South Africa: History, current policy development and implementation, and policy analysis
Background: Mental health problems represent the greatest global burden of disease among children and adolescents. There is, however, lack of policy development and implementation for child and adolescent mental health (CAMH), particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where children and adolescents represent up to 50% of populations. South Africa, an upper-middle income country is […]
Socio-demographic factors influencing the use of assistive technology among children with disabilities in Malawi
This paper aims to address the information gap on the influence of socio-demographic factors on access and utilization of Assistive Technology (AT) among children with disabilities in Malawi. Thus, it contributes towards the realization of the recommendations of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities and the development of a framework for […]
Dual profile of environmental enrichment and autistic-like behaviors in the maternal separated model in rats
Background: Environmental Enrichment (EE) has been suggested as a possible therapeutic intervention for neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism. Although the benefits of this therapeutic method have been reported in some animal models and human studies, the unknown pathophysiology of autism as well as number of conflicting results, urge for further examination of the therapeutic potential […]
Determinants of delayed or incomplete diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccination in parallel urban and rural birth cohorts of 30,956 infants in Tanzania
Background: Delayed vaccination increases the time infants are at risk for acquiring vaccine-preventable diseases. Factors associated with incomplete vaccination are relatively well characterized in resource-limited settings; however, few studies have assessed immunization timeliness. Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study examining Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis (DTP) vaccination timing among newborns enrolled in a Neonatal Vitamin A supplementation trial […]
