scholarly journals Mapping access to basic hygiene services in low- and middle-income countries: A cross-sectional case study of geospatial disparities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiyu Yu ◽  
Robert E. S. Bain ◽  
Jie Yu ◽  
Victor Alegana ◽  
Winfred Dotse-Gborgbortsi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Random Forest ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Random Forest Model ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Ensemble Model ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Forest Model ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Handwashing with water and soap, is among the most a cost-effective interventions to improve public health. Yet billions of people globally lacking handwashing facilities with water and soap on premises, with gaps particularly found in low- and middle-income countries. Targeted efforts to expand access to basic hygiene services require data at geospatially explicit scales. Drawing on country-specific cross-sectional Demographic and Health Surveys with georeferenced hygiene data, we developed an ensemble model to predict the prevalence of basic hygiene facilities in Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan and Uganda. The ensemble model was based on a multiple-level stacking structure, where five predictive modelling algorithms were used to produce sub-models, and a random forest model was used to generalise the final predictions. An inverse distance weighted interpolation was incorporated in the random forest model to account for spatial autocorrelation. Local coverage and a local dissimilarity index were calculated to examine the geographic disparities in access. Our methodology produced robust outputs, as evidenced by performance evaluations (all R2 were above 0.8 with the exception of Malawi where R2 = 0.6). Among the five study countries, Pakistan had the highest overall coverage, whilst Malawi had the poorest coverage. Apparent disparities in basic hygiene services were found across geographic locations and between urban and rural settings. Nigeria had the highest level of inequalities in basic hygiene services, whilst Malawi showed the least segregation between populations with and without basic hygiene services. Both educational attainment and wealth were important predictors of the geospatial distribution of basic hygiene services. By producing geospatially explicit estimates of the prevalence of handwashing facilities with water and soap, this study provides a means of identifying geographical disparities in basic hygiene services. The method and outputs can be useful tools to identify areas of low coverage and to support efficient and precise targeting of efforts to scale up access to handwashing facilities and shift social and cultural norms on handwashing.

scholarly journals Prevalence and trends in the childhood dual burden of malnutrition in low- and middle-income countries, 1990–2012

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 1375-1388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Tzioumis ◽  
Melissa C Kay ◽  
Margaret E Bentley ◽  
Linda S Adair
Keyword(s):  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Dual Burden ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Low And Middle Income

AbstractObjectiveTo describe trends in country- and individual-level dual burden of malnutrition in children <5 years, and age-stratified (<2 years, ≥2 years) country-level trends, in thirty-six low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).DesignUsing repeated cross-sectional nationally representative data, we calculated the prevalence of malnutrition (stunting, wasting, overweight) at each survey wave, annualized rates of prevalence change for each country over time, and trends before and after 2000, for all children <5 years and separately for those </≥2 years. We examined country- (ratio of stunting to overweight) and individual-level (coexistence of stunting and overweight) dual burden in children <5 years.SettingDemographic and Health Surveys from thirty-six LMIC between 1990 and 2012.SubjectsChildren <5 years.ResultsOverall malnutrition prevalence decreased in children <5 years, driven by stunting decreases. Stunting rates decreased in 78 % of countries, wasting rates decreased in 58 % of countries and overweight rates increased in 36 % of countries. Rates of change differed for children </≥2 years, with children <2 years experiencing decreases in stunting in fewer countries yet increases in overweight in more countries. Countries with nearly equal prevalences of stunting and overweight in children <5 years increased from 2000 to the final year. Within a country, 0·3–10·9 % of children <5 years were stunted and overweight, and 0·6–37·8 % of stunted children <5 years were overweight.ConclusionsThe dual burden exists in children <5 years on both country and individual levels, indicating a shift is needed in policies and programmes to address both sides of malnutrition. Children <2 years should be identified as a high-risk demographic.

scholarly journals Consumption of Vitamin-A-Rich Foods and Vitamin A Supplementation for Children under Two Years Old in 51 Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 188
Author(s):  
Omar Karlsson ◽  
Rockli Kim ◽  
Andreas Hasman ◽  
S. V. Subramanian
Keyword(s):  
Vitamin A ◽  
Dietary Diversity ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Vitamin A Supplementation ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Persistent Problem ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Minimum Dietary Diversity ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Vitamin A supplementation for children 6–59 months old is an important intervention that boosts immune function, especially where children do not consume enough vitamin-A-rich foods. However, the low coverage of vitamin A supplementation is a persistent problem in low- and middle-income countries. We first estimated the percentage of children 6–23 months old receiving the minimum dietary diversity, vitamin-A-rich foods, and vitamin A supplementation, and second, the difference in the percentage receiving vitamin A supplementation between children 6–23 months old and children 24–59 months old using nationally representative cross-sectional household surveys, namely, the Demographic and Health Surveys, conducted from 2010 to 2019 in 51 low- and middle-income countries. Overall, 22% (95% CI: 22, 23) of children received the minimum dietary diversity, 55% (95% CI: 54, 55) received vitamin-A-rich foods, 59% (95% CI: 58, 59) received vitamin A supplementation, and 78% (95% CI: 78, 79) received either vitamin-A-rich foods or supplementation. A wide variation across countries was observed; for example, the percentage of children that received either vitamin-A-rich foods or supplementation ranged from 53% (95% CI: 49, 57) in Guinea to 96% (95% CI: 95, 97) in Burundi. The coverage of vitamin A supplementation should be improved, especially for children 6–23 months old, in most countries, particularly where the consumption of vitamin-A-rich foods is inadequate.

scholarly journals Hierarchical disentanglement of contextual from compositional risk factors of diarrhoea among under-five children in low- and middle-income countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adeniyi Francis Fagbamigbe ◽  
A. Olalekan Uthman ◽  
Latifat Ibisomi
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
National Level ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Contextual Risk ◽  
Under Five ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Under Five Children ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Low And Middle Income

AbstractSeveral studies have documented the burden and risk factors associated with diarrhoea in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). To the best of our knowledge, the contextual and compositional factors associated with diarrhoea across LMIC were poorly operationalized, explored and understood in these studies. We investigated multilevel risk factors associated with diarrhoea among under-five children in LMIC. We analysed diarrhoea-related information of 796,150 under-five children (Level 1) nested within 63,378 neighbourhoods (Level 2) from 57 LMIC (Level 3) using the latest data from cross-sectional and nationally representative Demographic Health Survey conducted between 2010 and 2018. We used multivariable hierarchical Bayesian logistic regression models for data analysis. The overall prevalence of diarrhoea was 14.4% (95% confidence interval 14.2–14.7) ranging from 3.8% in Armenia to 31.4% in Yemen. The odds of diarrhoea was highest among male children, infants, having small birth weights, households in poorer wealth quintiles, children whose mothers had only primary education, and children who had no access to media. Children from neighbourhoods with high illiteracy [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 1.07, 95% credible interval (CrI) 1.04–1.10] rates were more likely to have diarrhoea. At the country-level, the odds of diarrhoea nearly doubled (aOR = 1.88, 95% CrI 1.23–2.83) and tripled (aOR = 2.66, 95% CrI 1.65–3.89) among children from countries with middle and lowest human development index respectively. Diarrhoea remains a major health challenge among under-five children in most LMIC. We identified diverse individual-level, community-level and national-level factors associated with the development of diarrhoea among under-five children in these countries and disentangled the associated contextual risk factors from the compositional risk factors. Our findings underscore the need to revitalize existing policies on child and maternal health and implement interventions to prevent diarrhoea at the individual-, community- and societal-levels. The current study showed how the drive to the attainment of SDGs 1, 2, 4, 6 and 10 will enhance the attainment of SDG 3.

scholarly journals Finding Children with High Risk of Non-Vaccination in 92 Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Decision Tree Approach

Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 646
Author(s):  
Thiago M. Santos ◽  
Bianca O. Cata-Preta ◽  
Cesar G. Victora ◽  
Aluisio J. D. Barros
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Decision Tree ◽  
Immunization Coverage ◽  
Risk Groups ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Agenda 2030 ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Tree Approach ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Reducing vaccination inequalities is a key goal of the Immunization Agenda 2030. Our main objective was to identify high-risk groups of children who received no vaccines (zero-dose children). A decision tree approach was used for 92 low- and middle-income countries using data from Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, allowing the identification of groups of children aged 12–23 months at high risk of being zero dose (no doses of the four basic vaccines—BCG, polio, DPT and measles). Three high-risk groups were identified in the analysis combining all countries. The group with the highest zero-dose prevalence (42%) included 4% of all children, but almost one in every four zero-dose children in the sample. It included children whose mothers did not receive the tetanus vaccine during and before the pregnancy, who had no antenatal care visits and who did not deliver in a health facility. Separate analyses by country presented similar results. Children who have been missed by vaccination services were also left out by other primary health care interventions, especially those related to antenatal and delivery care. There is an opportunity for better integration among services in order to achieve high and equitable immunization coverage.

scholarly journals Co-morbid anaemia and stunting among children of pre-school age in low- and middle-income countries: a syndemic

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thach Duc Tran ◽  
Beverley-Ann Biggs ◽  
Sara Holton ◽  
Hau Thi Minh Nguyen ◽  
Sarah Hanieh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
Logistic Models ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Healthy Children ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Disadvantaged Children ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Co Morbidity ◽  
Low And Middle Income

AbstractObjectiveTo determine the prevalence of co-morbidity of two important global health challenges, anaemia and stunting, among children aged 6–59 months in low- and middle-income countries.DesignSecondary analysis of data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted 2005–2015. Child stunting and anaemia were defined using current WHO classifications. Sociodemographic characteristics of children with anaemia, stunting and co-morbidity of these conditions were compared with those of ‘healthy’ children in the sample (children who were not stunted and not anaemic) using multiple logistic models.SettingLow- and middle-income countries.SubjectsChildren aged 6–59 months.ResultsData from 193 065 children from forty-three countries were included. The pooled proportion of co-morbid anaemia and stunting was 21·5 (95 % CI 21·2, 21·9) %, ranging from the lowest in Albania (2·6 %; 95 % CI 1·8, 3·7 %) to the highest in Yemen (43·3; 95 % CI 40·6, 46·1 %). Compared with the healthy group, children with co-morbidity were more likely to be living in rural areas, have mothers or main carers with lower educational levels and to live in poorer households. Inequality in children who had both anaemia and stunting was apparent in all countries.ConclusionsCo-morbid anaemia and stunting among young children is highly prevalent in low- and middle-income countries, especially among more disadvantaged children. It is suggested that they be considered under a syndemic framework, the Childhood Anaemia and Stunting (CHAS) Syndemic, which acknowledges the interacting nature of these diseases and the social and environmental factors that promote their negative interaction.

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