Sociocultural Factors Affecting Vocabulary Development in Young South African Children

Sociocultural influences on the development of child language skills have been widely studied, but the majority of the research findings were generated in Northern contexts. The current crosslinguistic, multisite study is the first of its kind in South Africa, considering the influence of a range of individual and sociocultural factors on expressive vocabulary size of […]

Individual and community level factors with a significant role in determining child height-for-age Z score in East Gojjam Zone, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia: A multilevel analysis

Background: In Ethiopia, child undernutrition remains to be a major public health challenge and a contributing factor for child mortality and morbidity. To reduce the problem, it is apparent to identify determinants of child undernutrition in specific contexts to deliver appropriately, targeted, effective and sustainable interventions. Methods: An agroecosystem linked cross-sectional survey was conducted in […]

Consensus-based approach to develop a measurement framework and identify a core set of indicators to track implementation and progress towards effective coverage of facility- based Kangaroo Mother Care

Background As efforts to scale up the delivery of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) in facilities are increasing, a standardized approach to measure implementation and progress towards effective coverage is needed. Here, we describe a consensus-based approach to develop a measurement framework and identify a core set of indicators for monitoring facility-based KMC that would be […]

Mobile technology for community health in Ghana: Is maternal messaging and provider use of technology cost-effective in improving maternal and child health outcomes at scale?

Background: Mobile technologies are emerging as tools to enhance health service delivery systems and empower clients to improve maternal, newborn, and child health. Limited evidence exists on the value for money of mobile health (mHealth) programs in low- and middle-income countries. Objective: This study aims to forecast the incremental cost-effectiveness of the Mobile Technology for […]

Quantifying within-city inequalities in child mortality across neighbourhoods in Accra, Ghana: A Bayesian spatial analysis

Objective Countries in sub-Saharan Africa suffer the highest rates of child mortality worldwide. Urban areas tend to have lower mortality than rural areas, but these comparisons likely mask large within-city inequalities. We aimed to estimate rates of under-five mortality (U5M) at the neighbourhood level for Ghana’s Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) and measure the extent […]

Intimate Partner Violence and Depression Symptom Severity among South African Women during Pregnancy and Postpartum: Population-Based Prospective Cohort Study

Background: Violence against women by intimate partners remains unacceptably common worldwide. The evidence base for the assumed psychological impacts of intimate partner violence (IPV) is derived primarily from studies conducted in high-income countries. A recently published systematic review identified 13 studies linking IPV to incident depression, none of which were conducted in sub-Saharan Africa. To […]

A cluster randomised trial of cookstove interventions to improve infant health in Ghana

Introduction Household air pollution from solid fuel combustion for cooking and heating is a leading cause of childhood morbidity and mortality worldwide. We hypothesised that clean cooking interventions delivered during pregnancy would improve child health. Methods We conducted a cluster randomised trial in rural Ghana to test whether providing pregnant women liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) […]

Implementation of point-of-care diagnostics leads to variable uptake of syphilis, anemia and CD4+ T-Cell count testing in rural maternal and child health clinics

Introduction Anemia, syphilis and HIV are high burden diseases among pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa. A quasi-experimental study was conducted in four health facilities in Southern Mozambique to evaluate the effect of point-of-care technologies for hemoglobin quantification, syphilis testing and CD4+ T-cell enumeration performed within maternal and child health services on testing and treatment coverage, […]

Identifying and characterising health policy and system-relevant documents in Uganda: A scoping review to develop a framework for the development of a one-stop shop

Background: Health policymakers in low- and middle-income countries continue to face difficulties in accessing and using research evidence for decision-making. This study aimed to identify and provide a refined categorisation of the policy documents necessary for building the content of a one-stop shop for documents relevant to health policy and systems in Uganda. The on-line […]

The effect of school feeding programme on class absenteeism and academic performance of schoolchildren in Southern Ethiopia: A prospective cohort study

Abstract Objective: Ethiopia recently scaled up the implementation of a school feeding programme (SFP). Yet, evidence on the impact of such programmes on academic outcomes remains inconclusive. We evaluated the effect of the SFP on class absenteeism and academic performance of primary school students (grade 5-8) in Sidama zone, Southern Ethiopia. Design: This prospective cohort […]