Most read article(s)
- Coaching Intensity, Adherence to Essential Birth Practices, and Health Outcomes in the BetterBirth Trial in Uttar Pradesh, India
Frequent coaching was associated with increased adherence to evidence-based essential birth practices among birth attendants but not with improved maternal and perinatal health outcomes in the BetterBirth Trial, which assessed the impact of a complex intervention to implement the World Health Organization's Safe Childbirth Checklist. To promote sustainable behavior change, future coaching-based interventions may need to explore cost-effective, feasible mechanisms for providing more frequent coaching delivered with high coverage among health care workers for longer durations.
- Close to Home: Evidence on the Impact of Community-Based Girl Groups
Available evidence, though limited, shows that programs can use community-based girl groups to help adolescent girls improve attitudes toward gender roles and norms, early pregnancy, and child marriage; evaluations indicate they have suboptimal performance on health behavior and health status.
- Two-Way Short Message Service (SMS) Communication May Increase Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Continuation and Adherence Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women in Kenya
We evaluated a 2-way short messaging service (SMS) communication platform to improve continuation of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention among Kenyan pregnant and postpartum women who initiated PrEP within routine maternal child health and family planning clinics. SMS increased support for PrEP, provided opportunities for dialogue beyond the clinic, and enabled women to ask and receive answers in real-time, which facilitated continued PrEP use.
- Insights Into Provider Bias in Family Planning from a Novel Shared Decision Making Based Counseling Initiative in Rural, Indigenous Guatemala
Race, ethnicity, and indigenous status should be considered as potential drivers of provider bias in family planning services globally. Efforts to confront provider bias in family planning counseling should include concrete strategies that promote provider recognition of biases and longitudinal curriculums that allow for sustained feedback and self-reflection.
- Diagnostic Utility and Impact on Clinical Decision Making of Focused Assessment With Sonography for HIV-Associated Tuberculosis in Malawi: A Prospective Cohort Study
Among patients with HIV and with probable/confirmed TB, using the focused assessment with sonography for HIV-associated TB (FASH) protocol led to a 5-fold increase in the clinician's decision to initiate TB treatment on that day. FASH is a supplementary tool that can help clinicians diagnose patients with HIV-associated TB at the point-of-care and reduce delays in their treatment, particularly when access to other diagnostics is limited or unavailable.
- Unmet Need for Family Planning and Experience of Unintended Pregnancy Among Female Sex Workers in Urban Cameroon: Results From a National Cross-Sectional Study
Female sex workers (FSWs) in Cameroon have unmet need for effective contraception, and experience of unintended pregnancy and pregnancy termination is common. Reducing barriers to accessing high-quality, voluntary family planning services in FSW-focused community services is a key strategy to promote client-centered care, promote informed choice, reduce unintended pregnancies, and improve quality of life for FSWs.
- Meeting the Global Target in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Care Services in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
What progress has been achieved toward reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health service related Sustainable Development Goals? Analyzing data to estimate coverage of these indicators, we observed that acceleration is needed in coordinated global efforts and government policies to ensure universal access to RMNCH care services by 2030.
- A Rapid Review of Available Evidence to Inform Indicators for Routine Monitoring and Evaluation of Respectful Maternity Care
We present a set of indicators that could be used to measure the effects of programs on RMC. Integrating these indicators into programs to improve quality of care and other health system outcomes will facilitate routine monitoring and accountability around experience of care.
- Community Ownership in Primary Health Care—Managing the Intangible
Although enduringly intangible, community ownership is foundational to primary health care. This intangibility is a reminder of what programs can and should do (create space for dialogue, question their own choices, expand diversity in stakeholder voices making sense of program-induced changes, including through evaluation) and what they cannot do (manage someone else’s ownership).
- Costing Analysis of a Pilot Community Health Worker Program in Rural Nepal
Data from a retrospective costing analysis offers insights and practical considerations for policy makers and locally elected officials for designing and implementing a new community health work cadre as a mechanism to achieve SDG targets in Nepal.