Strengthening primary health care at district-level in Malawi – Determining the coverage, costs and benefits of community-directed interventions

Background: Community-Directed Interventions (CDI) is a participatory approach for delivery of essential healthcare services at community level. It is based on the values and principles of Primary Health Care (PHC). The CDI approach has been used to improve the delivery of services in areas that have previously applied Community-Directed Treatment with ivermectin (CDTi). Limited knowledge […]

Menstrual knowledge, sociocultural restrictions, and barriers to menstrual hygiene management in Ghana: Evidence from a multi-method survey among adolescent schoolgirls and schoolboys

On a daily basis, schoolgirls in low and middle-income countries discover blood on their clothing for the first time in school environments without toilets, water, or a supportive teacher, mentor, or role model to help them understand the changes happening in their bodies. This study aimed to examine the menstrual knowledge, sociocultural restrictions, and barriers […]

Pregnant women and health workers’ perspectives on perinatal mental health and intimate partner violence in rural Ethiopia: a qualitative interview study

Background: Mental health conditions are common during the perinatal period and associated with maternal, foetal, and neonatal morbidity and mortality. There is an established bidirectional relationship between mental health conditions and intimate partner violence (IPV), including during and after pregnancy. Mean lifetime prevalence of physical, sexual or emotional IPV exposure among women in rural Ethiopia […]

Prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection and associated risk factors among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in Mulago Hospital, Uganda: a cross-sectional study

AIM: To determine the prevalence and factors associated with hepatitis B virus infection among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in Mulago Hospital. DESIGN: Cross-sectional observational study. SETTING: Mulago National Referral Hospital, Uganda, antenatal clinic. PARTICIPANTS: We randomly selected 340 pregnant women attending their first antenatal visit at Mulago Hospital antenatal clinic. PRIMARY OUTCOME: Hepatitis B […]

Neonatal care and community-level treatment seeking for possible severe bacterial infection (PSBI) in Amhara, Ethiopia

Background: In Ethiopia, neonatal mortality accounts for approximately 54% of under-five deaths with the majority of these deaths driven by infections. Possible Severe Bacterial Infection (PSBI) in neonates is a syndromic diagnosis that non-clinical health care providers use to identify and treat newborns with signs of sepsis. In low- and middle-income countries, referral to a […]

Factors associated with modern contraceptive demands satisfied among currently married/in-union women of reproductive age in Ethiopia: A multilevel analysis of the 2016 Demographic and Health Survey

Objectives Regardless of the local and international initiatives, excluding exempting services, demand satisfied for contraceptives remains low in Ethiopia. This circumstance is supposed to be attributed to different level factors; however, most were not well addressed in the previous studies. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the magnitude and individual, household and community-level factors associated […]

Causal Pathways from Enteropathogens to Environmental Enteropathy: Findings from the MAL-ED Birth Cohort Study

Background Environmental enteropathy (EE), the adverse impact of frequent and numerous enteric infections on the gut resulting in a state of persistent immune activation and altered permeability, has been proposed as a key determinant of growth failure in children in low- and middle-income populations. A theory-driven systems model to critically evaluate pathways through which enteropathogens, […]

“I Don’t Know where I Have to Knock for Support”: A Mixed-Methods Study on Perceptions and Experiences of Single Mothers Raising Children in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Introduction and Objectives: It is well-documented that single mothers in sub-Saharan Africa face unique psychosocial challenges which can lead to child health and developmental disadvantages, often impacting life trajectories for both the mother and child. Years of instability, conflict, and widespread poor governance within the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have resulted in magnified challenges […]

The effect of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact on Ghanaian infants’ response to the Still Face Task: Comparison between Ghanaian and Canadian mother-infant dyads

The effect of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact on Ghanaian infants’ developing social expectations for maternal behavior was investigated. Infants with high and low mother-infant skin-to-skin contact experience in the infants’ first month engaged with their mothers in a Still Face Task at 6 weeks of age. Infants with high skin-to-skin contact experience, but not those with […]

Detection of foci of residual malaria transmission through reactive case detection in Ethiopia

Background: Sub-microscopic and asymptomatic infections could be bottlenecks to malaria elimination efforts in Ethiopia. This study determined the prevalence of malaria, and individual and household-level factors associated with Plasmodium infections obtained following detection of index cases in health facilities in Jimma Zone. Methods: Index malaria cases were passively detected and tracked in health facilities from […]