scholarly journals Understanding the implementation (including women’s use) of maternity waiting homes in low-income and middle-income countries: a realist synthesis protocol

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. e039531
Author(s):  
Daphne N McRae ◽  
Anayda Portela ◽  
Tamara Waldron ◽  
Nicole Bergen ◽  
Nazeem Muhajarine
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Implementation Strategies ◽  
Realist Synthesis ◽  
Plain Language ◽  
Programme Theory ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Maternity Waiting Homes ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Maternity Waiting Home

IntroductionMaternity waiting homes in low-income and middle-income countries provide accommodation near health facilities for pregnant women close to the time of birth to promote facility-based birth and birth with a skilled professional and to enable timely access to emergency obstetric services when needed. To date, no studies have provided a systematic, comprehensive synthesis explaining facilitators and barriers to successful maternity waiting home implementation and whether and how implementation strategies and recommendations vary by context. This synthesis will systematically consolidate the evidence, answering the question, ‘How, why, for whom, and in what context are maternity waiting homes successfully implemented in low-income and middle-income countries?’.Methods and analysisMethods include standard steps for realist synthesis: determining the scope of the review, searching for evidence, appraising and extracting data, synthesising and analysing the data and developing recommendations for dissemination. Steps are iterative, repeating until theoretical saturation is achieved. Searching will be conducted in 13 electronic databases with results managed in Eppi-Reviewer V.4. There will be no language, study-type or document-type restrictions. Items documented prior to 1990 will be excluded. To ensure our initial and revised programme theories accurately reflect the experiences and knowledge of key stakeholders, most notably the beneficiaries, interviews will be conducted with maternity waiting home users/nonusers, healthcare staff, policymakers and programme designers. All data will be analysed using context–mechanism–outcome configurations, refined and synthesised to produce a final programme theory.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval for the project will be obtained from the Mozambican National Bioethical Commission, Jimma University College of Health Sciences Institutional Review Board and the University of Saskatchewan Bioethical Research Ethics Board. To ensure results of the evaluation are available for uptake by a wide range of stakeholders, dissemination will include peer-reviewed journal publication, a plain-language brief, and conference presentations to stakeholders’ practice audiences.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020173595.

scholarly journals Lactational amenorrhoea among adolescent girls in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic scoping review

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. e002492
Author(s):  
Martines N S Figaroa ◽  
Saverio Bellizzi ◽  
Therese Delvaux ◽  
Lenka Benova
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Planning Method ◽  
Family Planning Method ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Postpartum Family Planning ◽  
Wide Range

IntroductionFertility levels among adolescents remain high in many settings. The objective of this paper was to review the available literature about postpartum and lactational amenorrhoea among adolescents in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs).MethodsWe searched Medline, Embase, Global Health and CINAHL Plus databases using terms capturing adolescence and lactational or postpartum amenorrhoea. Inclusion criteria included publication date since 1990, data from LMICs, and topic related to lactational amenorrhoea as a postpartum family planning method or as an effect of (exclusive) breast feeding among adolescents. Thematic analysis and narrative synthesis were applied to summarise and interpret the findings.ResultsWe screened 982 titles and abstracts, reviewed 75 full-text articles and included nine. Eight studies assessed data from a single country (three from India, two from Bangladesh, two from Turkey, one from Nigeria). One study using Demographic and Health Survey data included 37 different LMICs. The five studies measuring duration of postpartum or lactational amenorrhoea reported a wide range of durations across the contexts examined. Four studies (from Bangladesh, Nigeria and Turkey) examined outcomes related to the use of lactational amenorrhoea as a family planning method among adolescents. We did not find any studies assessing adolescents’ knowledge of lactational amenorrhoea as a postpartum family planning method. Likewise, little is known about the effectiveness of lactational amenorrhoea method among adolescents using sufficiently large samples and follow-up time.ConclusionThe available evidence on lactational amenorrhoea among adolescents in LMICs is scarce. Given the potential contribution of lactational amenorrhoea to prevention of short interpregnancy intervals among adolescents and young women, there is a need for a better understanding of the duration of lactational amenorrhoea, and the knowledge and effective use of lactational amenorrhoea method for family planning among adolescents in a wider range of LMIC settings.

scholarly journals Identifying health policy and systems research priorities on multisectoral collaboration for health in low-income and middle-income countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (Suppl 4) ◽  
pp. e000970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Glandon ◽  
Ankita Meghani ◽  
Nasreen Jessani ◽  
Mary Qiu ◽  
Sara Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Implementation Strategies ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Review Articles

IntroductionWhile efforts to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have reinvigorated interest in multisectoral collaborations (MSCs) among the global health and development community, there remains a plethora of questions about how best to conceptualise, plan, implement, evaluate and sustain MSCs. The objective of this paper is to present research priorities on MSC for health from researchers and policymakers around the globe, with an emphasis on low-income and middle-income countries.MethodsThe authors identified 30 priority research questions from two sources: (1) 38 review articles on MSC for health, and (2) interviews and focus groups with a total of 81 policymakers, including government officials (largely from ministries of health and state/provincial departments of health, but also offices of planning, public service, social development, the prime minister and others), large multilateral or bilateral organisations, and non-governmental organisations. In a third phase, questions were refined and ranked by a diverse group of researchers from around the globe using an online voting platform.ResultsThe top-ranked questions focused predominantly on pragmatic questions, such as how best to structure, implement and sustain MSCs, as well as how to build stakeholder capacity and community partnerships. Despite substantial variation between review articles, policymakers’ reflections and online ranking by researchers, two topics emerged as research priorities for all three: (1) leadership, partnership and governance structures for MSCs; and (2) MSC implementation strategies and mechanisms. The review articles underscored the need for more guidance on appropriate study designs and methods for investigating MSCs, which may be a prerequisite for other identified research priorities.ConclusionThese findings could inform efforts within and beyond the health sector to better align research objectives and funding with the evidence needs of policymakers grappling with questions about how best to leverage MSCs to achieve UHC and the SDGs.

scholarly journals The cost-effectiveness of hypertension management in low-income and middle-income countries: a review

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. e002213
Author(s):  
Deliana Kostova ◽  
Garrison Spencer ◽  
Andrew E Moran ◽  
Laura K Cobb ◽  
Muhammad Jami Husain ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
National Income ◽  
Economic Evaluations ◽  
Health Improvement ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Cost

Hypertension in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) is largely undiagnosed and uncontrolled, representing an untapped opportunity for public health improvement. Implementation of hypertension control strategies in low-resource settings depends in large part on cost considerations. However, evidence on the cost-effectiveness of hypertension interventions in LMICs is varied across geographical, clinical and evaluation contexts. We conducted a comprehensive search for published economic evaluations of hypertension treatment programmes in LMICs. The search identified 71 articles assessing a wide range of hypertension intervention designs and cost components, of which 42 studies across 15 countries reported estimates of cost-effectiveness. Although comparability of results was limited due to heterogeneity in the interventions assessed, populations studied, costs and study quality score, most interventions that reported cost per averted disability-adjusted life-year (DALY) were cost-effective, with costs per averted DALY not exceeding national income thresholds. Programme elements that may reduce cost-effectiveness included screening for hypertension at younger ages, addressing prehypertension, or treating patients at lower cardiovascular disease risk. Cost-effectiveness analysis could provide the evidence base to guide the initiation and development of hypertension programmes.

scholarly journals Evidence gap map of performance measurement and management in primary healthcare systems in low-income and middle-income countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (Suppl 8) ◽  
pp. e001451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Munar ◽  
Birte Snilstveit ◽  
Ligia Esther Aranda ◽  
Nilakshi Biswas ◽  
Theresa Baffour ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Primary Healthcare ◽  
Implementation Strategies ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Audit And Feedback ◽  
Unintended Effects ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries

IntroductionWe mapped available evidence on performance measurement and management (PMM) strategies in primary healthcare (PHC) systems of low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Widely used, their effectiveness remains inconclusive. This evidence gap map characterises existing research and evidence gaps.MethodsSystematic mapping of performance measurement and management research in LMICs from 2000 to mid-2018; literature searches of seven academic databases and institutional repositories of impact evaluations and systematic reviews. Using a combination of manual screening and machine learning, four reviewers appraised 38 088 titles and abstracts, and extracted metadata from 137 impact evaluations and 18 systematic reviews that met the inclusion criteria. The resulting visual representation of the evidence base was uploaded to a web-based platform.ResultsSince 2000, the number of studies has increased; the first systematic reviews were completed in 2010. Two-thirds of the studies were conducted in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Randomised controlled trials were the most frequently used study design. The evidence is concentrated in two types of PMM strategies: implementation strategies (in-service training, continuing education, supervision) and performance-based financing. Major gaps exist in accountability arrangements particularly the use of audit and feedback. The least studied types of outcomes were unintended effects, harm and social equity.ConclusionsThe evidence is clustered around interventions that are unlikely to achieve transformational change in health outcomes. The gaps identified suggest that routinely used PMM strategies are implemented without sufficient knowledge of their effects. Future efforts at redesigning PHC systems need to be informed by evidence on the most effective approaches for using PMM strategies.

scholarly journals Perioperative mortality rates in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. e000810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua S Ng-Kamstra ◽  
Sumedha Arya ◽  
Sarah L M Greenberg ◽  
Meera Kotagal ◽  
Catherine Arsenault ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Surgical Procedures ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Surgical Care ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Perioperative Mortality ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Wide Range

IntroductionThe Lancet Commission on Global Surgery proposed the perioperative mortality rate (POMR) as one of the six key indicators of the strength of a country’s surgical system. Despite its widespread use in high-income settings, few studies have described procedure-specific POMR across low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We aimed to estimate POMR across a wide range of surgical procedures in LMICs. We also describe how POMR is defined and reported in the LMIC literature to provide recommendations for future monitoring in resource-constrained settings.MethodsWe did a systematic review of studies from LMICs published from 2009 to 2014 reporting POMR for any surgical procedure. We extracted select variables in duplicate from each included study and pooled estimates of POMR by type of procedure using random-effects meta-analysis of proportions and the Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation to stabilise variances.ResultsWe included 985 studies conducted across 83 LMICs, covering 191 types of surgical procedures performed on 1 020 869 patients. Pooled POMR ranged from less than 0.1% for appendectomy, cholecystectomy and caesarean delivery to 20%–27% for typhoid intestinal perforation, intracranial haemorrhage and operative head injury. We found no consistent associations between procedure-specific POMR and Human Development Index (HDI) or income-group apart from emergency peripartum hysterectomy POMR, which appeared higher in low-income countries. Inpatient mortality was the most commonly used definition, though only 46.2% of studies explicitly defined the time frame during which deaths accrued.ConclusionsEfforts to improve access to surgical care in LMICs should be accompanied by investment in improving the quality and safety of care. To improve the usefulness of POMR as a safety benchmark, standard reporting items should be included with any POMR estimate. Choosing a basket of procedures for which POMR is tracked may offer institutions and countries the standardisation required to meaningfully compare surgical outcomes across contexts and improve population health outcomes.

scholarly journals A novel prison mental health in-reach service in Somaliland: a model for low-income countries?

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 61-64
Author(s):  
Jibril I. M. Handuleh ◽  
Ronan J. Mclvor
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Independent State ◽  
International Agencies ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Assessment And Treatment ◽  
Local Agencies

Prison in-reach mental health services are reasonably well developed in advanced economies, but virtually nonexistent in low-and middle-income countries. We describe the development of a small prison in-reach project in Somaliland, a self-declared independent state which has experienced conflict and poverty in equal measure. After careful planning and cooperation with local agencies, the service provides sessional input to a regional prison, including assessment and treatment of a wide range of psychiatric conditions. The project has had some unexpected benefits, which are described. The success of the project reflects the effectiveness of collaboration between local stakeholders and international agencies, and could be used as a model for the development of in-reach services in other low-income countries.

scholarly journals Protocol for a realist synthesis of health systems responsiveness in low-income and middle-income countries

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. e046992
Author(s):  
Tolib Mirzoev ◽  
Anna Cronin de Chavez ◽  
Ana Manzano ◽  
Irene Akua Agyepong ◽  
Mary Eyram Ashinyo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Systems ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Realist Synthesis ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
London School ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries

IntroductionHealth systems responsiveness is a key objective of any health system, yet it is the least studied of all objectives particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. Research on health systems responsiveness highlights its multiple elements, for example, dignity and confidentiality. Little is known, however, about underlying theories of health systems responsiveness, and the mechanisms through which responsiveness works. This realist synthesis contributes to bridging these two knowledge gaps.Methods and analysisIn this realist synthesis, we will use a four-step process, comprising: mapping of theoretical bases, formulation of programme theories, theory refinement and testing of programme theories using literature and empirical data from Ghana and Vietnam. We will include theoretical and conceptual pieces, reviews, empirical studies and grey literature, alongside the primary data. We will explore responsiveness as entailing external and internal interactions within health systems. The search strategy will be purposive and iterative, with continuous screening and refinement of theories. Data extraction will be combined with quality appraisal, using appropriate tools. Each fragment of evidence will be appraised as it is being extracted, for its relevance to the emerging programme theories and methodological rigour. The extracted data pertaining to contexts, mechanisms and outcomes will be synthesised to identify patterns and contradictions. Results will be reported using narrative explanations, following established guidance on realist syntheses.Ethics and disseminationEthics approvals for the wider RESPONSE (Improving health systems responsiveness to neglected health needs of vulnerable groups in Ghana and Vietnam) study, of which this review is one part, were obtained from the ethics committees of the following institutions: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (ref: 22981), University of Leeds, School of Medicine (ref: MREC19-051), Ghana Health Service (ref: GHS-ERC 012/03/20) and Hanoi University of Public Health (ref: 020-149/DD-YTCC).We will disseminate results through academic papers, conference presentations and stakeholder workshops in Ghana and Vietnam.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020200353. Full record: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42020200353.

scholarly journals Estimating private sector out-of-pocket expenditures on family planning commodities in low-and-middle-income countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. e004635
Author(s):  
Michelle Weinberger ◽  
Nicole Bellows ◽  
John Stover
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Sensitivity Testing ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Low And Middle Income

IntroductionThe role of the private sector in family planning (FP) is well studied; however, few efforts have been made to quantify the role of private out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditures on FP commodities across low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). Calculating OOP expenditures is important to illuminate the magnitude of these contributions and to inform discussions on how financial burdens can be reduced.MethodsEstimates of FP users and commodities consumed by women getting their FP methods from the private sector were made for 132 LMICs. Next, unit price data were compiled from to estimate the average price of commodities in the private sector at both a commercial and subsidised price point. These unit prices were applied to commodity consumption estimates to calculate total private OOP expenditures. Sensitivity testing was conducted.ResultsTotal estimated private OOP expenditures for FP commodities in 2019 was $2.73 billion across 132 LMICs. Spending on contraceptive pills accounted for 80% of this total, and just over three-quarters of expenditure came from upper-middle-income countries. OOP expenditures on subsidised commodities were small but accounted for 20% of expenditures in low-income countries. Non-subsidised unit prices were found to be between 5 and 20 times higher in upper-middle-income countries compared with low-income countries, although wide variation exists. For low-income and lower-middle-income countries, subsidies appear to be greatest for intrauterine devices (IUDs) and pills.ConclusionLarge OOP expenditures across all income levels highlight a need for financing approaches that ensure that a wide range of contraceptives are both accessible and affordable.

A protocol for a scoping review of implementation strategies to scale up self-administered depot medroxyprogesterone acetate subcutaneous injectable contraception v1

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adeniyi Kolade Aderoba ◽  
Petrus Steyn ◽  
James Njogu Kiarie
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Medroxyprogesterone Acetate ◽  
Implementation Strategy ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Implementation Strategies ◽  
Self Administration ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Roll Out

Self-administration of depot medroxyprogesterone acetate subcutaneous injectable contraception (DMPA-SC) is effective, safe and registered in many countries. It shows great potential to improve contraceptive access, continuation, and autonomy, including in low-income and middle-income countries. However, there are challenges to roll out this new efficacious intervention, and major implementation issues have been encountered for scale-up. This study aims to describe the implementation strategies to scale up self-administered DMPA-SC programs, the barriers, and facilitators to these programs, and the outcome of the implementation strategy used.

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