Table of Contents
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
- Locked Down: Experiences of Domestic Violence in Central India
Mandatory lockdowns to reduce the spread of COVID-19 have led to increased reports of domestic violence experienced by women globally. Because health care workers focus on the pandemic response, women who experience domestic violence may not seek help and may remain a neglected population.
- Maintaining Continuity of Care for Expectant Mothers in Kenya During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of MomCare
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya, the MomCare platform enabled care-seeking behaviors to increase and quality of care to be maintained for expectant mothers despite social, economic, and access barriers.
- Examining Roles, Support, and Experiences of Community Health Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Bangladesh: A Mixed Methods Study
Government-employed community health workers in Bangladesh are essential actors in the COVID-19 response in communities. Ensuring the workers’ equitable access to supportive mechanisms for their work, including training, infection prevention supplies, and supportive supervision, is critical for successfully preventing and managing COVID-19 in Bangladesh.
- TraumaLink: A Community-Based First-Responder System for Traffic Injury Victims in Bangladesh
A community-based network of trained volunteer layperson first responders in Bangladesh provided rapid and reliable on-scene trauma care to traffic injury victims, free of charge.
- Assessing the Sustainability of an Integrated Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Approach: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Evaluation in 10 Countries
An evaluation of area-wide sanitation interventions in 10 countries found that 6 of the 12 program areas had sustained similar levels of basic sanitation 1–2 years post-implementation, with varying levels of slippage in the other program areas.
- Coverage and Drivers to Reaching the Last Child With Vaccination in Urban Settings: A Mixed-Methods Study in Kampala, Uganda
Most children in Kampala city are not fully vaccinated as the health system is not designed to suit the complex urban setting.
- Screening for Severe Illness at Diagnosis Has the Potential to Prevent Early TB Deaths: Programmatic Experience From Karnataka, India
Despite TB being a potentially fatal disease, severity is not systematically assessed at the start of drug-susceptible TB treatment. We document our experience screening people for severe illness at diagnosis/notification in program settings and the potential impact on reducing early TB deaths.
- Women’s Experiences With Family Planning Under COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional, Interactive Voice Response Survey in Malawi, Nepal, Niger, and Uganda
Surveyed women attributed unintended pregnancies to COVID-19 and reported constraints to contraceptive access and use in Malawi, Nepal, Niger, and Uganda.
- Stakeholders’ Perspectives on the Application of New Diagnostic Devices for Urinary Schistosomiasis in Oyo State, Nigeria: A Q-Methodology Approach
New diagnostic devices for schistosomiasis should be designed to function best within the local endemic health care context and support stakeholders at various levels of the health care system in performing the tasks to help control and eventually eliminate schistosomiasis.
- Costs and Cost-Effectiveness of mCME Version 2.0: An SMS-Based Continuing Medical Education Program for HIV Clinicians in Vietnam
This cost analysis found that a mobile phone-based continuing medical education (mCME) intervention, involving daily text messages with links to relevant materials, for HIV clinicians in northern Vietnam was relatively low-cost and cost-effective, particularly for future nationwide models. Such mobile approaches to CME are worthy of attention in resource-constrained settings.
- What Drives Knowledge Seeking, Sharing, and Use Among Family Planning Professionals? Behavioral Evidence From Africa, Asia, and the United States
To reduce the knowledge-to-action gap in global health programs, knowledge management (KM) interventions can apply behavioral economics concepts by sharing practical, actionable information on context and how programs are implemented, using a multifaceted KM approach to build trust and group identity among members, and using incentives to motivate information sharing.
- Re-envisioning Kangaroo Mother Care Implementation Through a Socioecological Model: Lessons From Malawi
Successful kangaroo mother care (KMC) efforts must understand and address social norms that influence this practice. The current study offers a model for how to connect social norms analysis to specific actions to improve KMC implementation.
- Uganda National Institute of Public Health: Establishment and Experiences, 2013–2021
Since 2013, the Uganda National Institute of Public Health (UNIPH) has successfully collaborated with partners and secured donor funding as it works toward legal establishment as an autonomous entity eligible for government funding. Countries in Africa and beyond can learn from the process Uganda undertook to develop the UNIPH.
- Optimizing the Health Management Information System in Uttar Pradesh, India: Implementation Insights and Key Learnings
The Uttar Pradesh Health Management Information System has allowed managers across all levels of the state’s health system to access routinely collected data through a comprehensive online portal, contributing to a culture of information use.
- Calculating the Cost and Financing Needs of the Basic Package of Health Services in Afghanistan: Methods, Experiences, and Results
We present a methodology for calculating the funds necessary to provide primary health care services and apply it to the Basic Package of Health Services in Afghanistan.
FIELD ACTION REPORTS
- Formative Research to Inform Market-Based Interventions to Increase Egg Purchase and Consumption in Tigray, Ethiopia
We aimed to understand and address barriers and enablers related to market access, purchase, and consumption of animal source foods by children aged 6–23 months and to inform subsequent market-based interventions.
- Adapting High Impact Practices in Family Planning During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences From Kenya, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe
Documenting how family planning programs adapt to ensure continuity of care during the COVID-19 pandemic is an important contribution toward implementing approaches that are effective and resilient in the face of present and future challenges.
PROGRAM CASE STUDIES
- Addressing COVID-19 Rumors and Behaviors Using Theory in Guyana: A Program Case Study
We used a COVID-19 rumor classification tool to rapidly identify, synthesize, and counter misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic and provide appropriate social and behavior change messaging that would affect relevant preventive and protective behaviors.
COMMENTARIES
We present a joint global perspective about the urgent need to diversify the loci of knowledge creation and sharing in global implementation science. We underscore the imperative of addressing implementation research questions relevant to practitioners, policy makers, and researchers from low- and middle-income countries.
Population-based studies in high-income countries have failed to find that male circumcision protects against sexually transmitted infections. Using evidence from several sources, we show that male circumcision does protect against HIV during insertive intercourse for men who have sex with men.
The contributions of social and behavior change research/programming in 6 recent epidemics highlight the importance of further integrating such expertise into outbreak response.