Household food access and child malnutrition: Results from the eight-country MAL-ED study
Background: Stunting results from decreased food intake, poor diet quality, and a high burden of early childhood infections, and contributes to significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Although food insecurity is an important determinant of child nutrition, including stunting, development of universal measures has been challenging due to cumbersome nutritional questionnaires and concerns about lack of […]
Engaging Communities in Commodity Stock Monitoring Using Telecommunication Technology in Primary Health Care Facilities in Rural Nigeria
Background: With several efforts being made by key stakeholders to bridge the gap between beneficiaries and their having full access to free supplies, frequent stock-out, pilfering, collection of user fees for health commodities, and poor community engagement continue to plague the delivery of health services at the primary health care (PHC) level in rural Nigeria. […]
Formal maternal employment is associated with lower odds of exclusive breastfeeding by 14 weeks postpartum: A cross-sectional survey in Naivasha, Kenya
Background: In many low-and middle-income countries, improvements in exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) have stalled, delaying reductions in child mortality. Maternal employment is a potential barrier to EBF. Objectives: We evaluated associations between maternal employment and breastfeeding (BF) status. We compared formally and non-formally employed mothers in Naivasha, Kenya, where commercial floriculture and hospitality industries employ many […]
Factors associated with the utilization of institutional delivery services in Bangladesh
Introduction: Bangladesh has made remarkable progress towards reducing its maternal mortality rate (MMR) over the last two decades and is one of the few countries on track to achieving the MMR-related Millennium Development Goals (MDG-5A). However, the provision of universal access to reproductive healthcare (MDG-5B) and the utilization of maternal healthcare services (MHS) such as […]
Individual-and community-level determinants of neonatal mortality in the emerging regions of Ethiopia: a multilevel mixed-effect analysis
Background: Unlike infant and child mortality, neonatal mortality has declined steadily in Ethiopia. Despite the large-scale investment made by Ethiopia to improve the health of newborns and infants, it is among the regions with the highest burden of neonatal mortality. Although there are studies done on neonatal mortality in different areas of Ethiopia, as to […]
Using the polio programme to deliver primary health care in Nigeria: Implementation research
Objective To evaluate a project that integrated essential primary health-care services into the oral polio vaccine programme in hard-to-reach, underserved communities in northern Nigeria. Methods In 2013, Nigeria’s polio emergency operation centre adopted a new approach to rapidly raise polio immunity and reduce newborn, child and maternal morbidity and mortality. We identified, trained and equipped […]
Has Ebola delayed progress on access to routine care and financial protection in Sierra Leone? Evidence from a difference-in-differences analysis with propensity score weighting
Introduction: Covid-19 has highlighted the need to understand the long-term impact of epidemics on health systems. There is extensive evidence that the Ebola epidemic of 2014-16 dramatically reduced coverage of key reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) indicators during the period of acute crisis in Sierra Leone. However, less is known about the […]
Pathways Utilized for Antenatal Health Seeking Among Women in the Ga East District, Ghana
BACKGROUND: Ghana’s maternal mortality ratio has been declining over the last two decades but at a rather slow pace. Poor access to effective maternity care is identified as one of the key challenges of maternity care. The current study mapped out the pathways to pregnancy care seeking among urban-dwelling adult women in a peri-urban district […]
Associations of Enteric Protein Loss, Vaccine Response, Micronutrient Deficiency, and Maternal Depressive Symptoms with Deviance in Childhood Linear Growth: Results from a Multicountry Birth Cohort Study
We identified the determinants of positive (children who had a birth weight, 2.5 kg and/or maternal height, 145 cm but were nonstunted at 24 months of age) and negative (children who had a birth weight $ 2.5 kg and maternal height $ 145 cm but were stunted at 24 months of age) deviance in childhood […]
Trends in burden and risk factors associated with childhood stunting in Rwanda from 2000 to 2015: Policy and program implications
Background: Rwanda has made substantial economic progress over the past two decades. However, evidence suggests that malnutrition among children remains high in spite of this progress. This study aims to examine trends and potential risk factors associated with childhood stunting from 2000 to 2015 in Rwanda. Methods: Data for this study come from the 2000 […]