Evaluating the impact of community health volunteer home visits on child diarrhea and fever in the volta region, ghana: A cluster-randomized controlled trial
Background Although there is mounting evidence demonstrating beneficial effects of community health workers (CHWs), few studies have examined the impact of CHW programs focused on preventing infectious diseases in children through behavior changes. We assessed the preventive effects of community health volunteers (CHVs), who receive no financial incentive, on child diarrhea and fever prevalence in […]
Formative research and development of innovative tools for “better Outcomes in Labour Difficulty” (BOLD): Study protocol Obstetrics
Background: Most complications during labour and childbirth could be averted with timely interventions by skilled healthcare providers. Yet, the quality and outcomes of childbirth care remains suboptimal in many health facilities in low-resource settings. To accelerate the reduction of childbirth-related maternal, fetal and newborn mortality and morbidity, the World Health Organization has initiated the “Better […]
Lively Minds: improving health and development through play-a randomised controlled trial evaluation of a comprehensive ECCE programme at scale in Ghana
Introduction Many children in developing countries grow up in environments that lack stimulation, leading to deficiencies in early years of development. Several efficacy trials of early childhood care and education (ECCE) programmes have demonstrated potential to improve child development; evidence on whether these effects can be sustained once programmes are scaled is much more mixed. […]
Intention to use maternity waiting home and associated factors among pregnant women in Gamo Gofa zone, Southern Ethiopia, 2019
Background A maternity waiting home is a temporary residence in which pregnant women from remote areas wait for their childbirth. It is an approach targeted to advance access to emergency obstetric care services especially, in hard-to-reach areas to escalate institutional delivery to reduce complications that occur during childbirth. Apart from the availability of this service, […]
Chronic disease outcomes after severe acute malnutrition in Malawian children (ChroSAM): a cohort study
Background Tackling severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is a global health priority. Heightened risk of non-communicable diseases (NCD) in children exposed to SAM at around 2 years of age is plausible in view of previously described consequences of other early nutritional insults. By applying developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) theory to this group, we […]
The chicken or the egg? Exploring bidirectional associations between Newcastle disease vaccination and village chicken flock size in rural Tanzania
© 2017 de Bruyn et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The study design, protocols and research instruments for this program were approved by the National […]
Tonse Pamodzi: Developing a combination strategy to support adherence to antiretroviral therapy and HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis during pregnancy and breastfeeding
To eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV (EMTCT), scalable strategies to enhance antiretroviral adherence for both antiretroviral therapy (ART) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) are needed as part of integrated HIV and maternal-child health services. We developed Tonse Pamodzi (“all of us together”), an adaptable intervention integrating biomedical and behavioral components to support HIV treatment and prevention. […]
Early outcomes after implementation of treat all in Rwanda: an interrupted time series study
Introduction: Nearly all countries in sub-Saharan Africa have adopted policies to provide antiretroviral therapy (ART) to all persons living with HIV (Treat All), though HIV care outcomes of these programmes are not well-described. We estimated changes in ART initiation and retention in care following Treat All implementation in Rwanda in July 2016. Methods: We conducted […]
Engaging fathers to improve complementary feeding is acceptable and feasible in the Lake Zone, Tanzania
In Tanzania, suboptimal complementary feeding practices contribute to high stunting rates. Fathers influence complementary feeding practices, and effective strategies are needed to engage them. The objectives of this research were to examine the acceptability and feasibility of (1) tailored complementary feeding recommendations and (2) engaging fathers in complementary feeding. We conducted trials of improved practices […]
“It is like that, we didn’t understand each other”: Exploring the influence of patient-provider interactions on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV service use in rural Tanzania
Interactions between patients and service providers frequently influence uptake of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) HIV services in sub-Saharan Africa, but this process has not been examined in depth. This study explores how patient-provider relations influence PMTCT service use in four government facilities in Kisesa, Tanzania. Qualitative data were collected in 2012 through participatory group […]
