Table of Contents
EDITORIALS
- A Call to Action: Reinvigorating Interest and Investments in Health Infrastructure
Infrastructure investments can contribute substantially to alleviating burdens of morbidity and mortality while also providing a positive return on investment in the long term.
VIEWPOINTS
- Equitable Open Access Publishing: Changing the Financial Power Dynamics in Academia
The growth in open access publishing in academia benefits readership but disproportionally hinders unfunded or lesser-funded researchers. Few journals create comprehensive means to bridge these inequities, calling for a shift in academic publishing practices.
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
- Household Survey Measurement of Newborn Postnatal Care: Coverage, Quality Gaps, and Internal Inconsistencies in Responses
Reliable measurement of postnatal content of care is currently lacking despite the critical importance of care in this vulnerable period. We found that there is a large quality-coverage gap with missed opportunities for quality care as well as internal inconsistencies in responses to newborn questions.
- Projecting the Impact of Nutrition Policy to Improve Child Stunting: A Case Study in Guatemala Using the Lives Saved Tool
We projected the impact of a Scaling Up Nutrition intervention policy, the Great Crusade, and found that increasing intervention coverage is unlikely to improve child stunting outcomes in Guatemala to meet Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
- Beyond Institutionalization: Planning for Sustained Investments in Training, Supervision, and Support of Community Health Worker Programs in Bangladesh
Institutionalizing community health workers (CHWs) is insufficient for improving program quality. Governments must plan for sustained investments for salaries and benefits, as well as systems enabling adaptive management of the CHW cadres. Greater coordination is needed at the global level to pool and align donor investments to support the ecosystem underlying CHW programs.
- Impact of Solar Light and Electricity on the Quality and Timeliness of Maternity Care: A Stepped-Wedge Cluster-Randomized Trial in Uganda
Lack of access to reliable energy is a major neglected health system challenge to maternal and child health. We found that installing a solar energy system intervention in rural Ugandan maternity facilities led to modest increases in the quality of maternity care and reductions in delays in care.
- Health Sector Resource Mapping in Malawi: Sharing the Collection and Use of Budget Data for Evidence-Based Decision Making
By tracking budgets for health through its annual resource mapping exercise, the Government of Malawi generated evidence for planning and budgeting, quantifying resource needs, mobilizing funds to fill financial gaps, and coordinating investments across stakeholders with different priorities toward common goals. The exercise was adapted to conduct COVID-19 resource mapping to inform planning and coordination of the national pandemic response.
- Evaluation of 2 Intervention Models to Integrate Family Planning Into Worker Health and Livelihood Programs in Egypt: A Difference-in-Differences Analysis
Integrating family planning and reproductive health messages into worker health programs and livelihood programs may offer a unique approach for raising young people's awareness of family planning and reproductive health.
- Participation in a Community-Based Women's Health Education Program and At-Risk Child Development in Rural Kenya: Developmental Screening Questionnaire Results Analysis
A community-based intervention focused on women's health education may help protect against early childhood developmental delays in resource-limited settings.
- Uptake of Encapsulated Ferrous Fumarate Double Fortified Salt in the Public Distribution System in India: A Value Chain Analysis
Initiating and sustaining large-scale encapsulated ferrous fumarate double fortified salt interventions in the public distribution system in India poses several challenges that can be minimized by strengthening double fortified salt value chains.
- Using a Pharmacy-Based Surveillance System to Improve Standards for TB Care in Kerala, India
A pharmacy-based surveillance system in Kerala, India, has helped to improve TB patient notifications from the private sector, build better public-private partnerships, and improve the quality of TB diagnosis. Pharmacy-based surveillance has the potential to strengthen TB surveillance and facilitate standards of TB care.
- Enhancing Performance and Sustainability of Community Health Worker Programs in Uganda: Lessons and Experiences From Stakeholders
We conducted a 1-day workshop—a unique opportunity to engage stakeholders at all levels of community health worker (CHW) program involvement—to discuss learned experiences and strategies to enhance and sustain the CHW program in Uganda.
- Can We Use Routine Data for Strategic Decision Making? A Time Trend Comparison Between Survey and Routine Data in Mali
Routine data, which is available more regularly than the "gold standard" survey data, can be used to inform programmatic decisions in Mali at the national level. However, caution must be used if using data at a subnational level.
- Accuracy of Using Mid-Upper Arm Circumference to Detect Wasting Among Children Aged 6–59 Months in Nepal
When comparing the sensitivity and specificity of mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) versus weight-for-height z-scores (WHZ) to identify wasting in children aged 6–59 months in Nepal, our findings suggest that only using MUAC compared to WHZ to screen may exclude a large number of children who could be at risk of severe or moderate acute malnutrition.
- Effects of Pharmacist Intervention on Community Control of Hypertension: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Zunyi, China
There has been growing interest in the role of pharmacists in managing chronic conditions. We tested the effects of a pharmacist intervention on community control of hypertension. Findings showed significant short-term improvement in patient knowledge, medication adherence, and lowered blood pressure.
- The Development and Inclusion of Questions on Surgery in the 2018 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey
Data from household surveys serve as the backbone to sustainable development planning. For the first time, questions on surgery have been included in a nationwide Demographic and Health Survey, showing that it is feasible to integrate these questions into a large-scale survey.
- From Insecurity to Health Service Delivery: Pathways and System Response Strategies in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
We identify the mediating factors through which insecurity affects both health service quality and delivery and investigate the strategies adopted to sustain service provision in the provinces of North and South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- Nutrition Capacity Building to Meet National Priorities: Lessons Learned in Developing and Implementing Malawi's First Dietetics Program
We describe the lessons learned in building nutrition capacity through the development and implementation of the first dietetics training program in Malawi.
PROGRAM CASE STUDIES
- Results-Based Financing for Health: A Case Study of Knowledge and Perceptions Among Stakeholders in a Donor-Funded Program in Zambia
The lack of a fully developed results-based financing model before implementation of a program in the health sector begins can lead to difficulty in communicating about the program to different actors involved and delay components of implementation.
REVIEWS
- Leveraging the Client-Provider Interaction to Address Contraceptive Discontinuation: A Scoping Review of the Evidence That Links Them
After examining existing evidence on contraceptive counseling and its impact on discontinuation, this scoping review identifies principles and priorities for better rights-based counseling, yet also illuminates the need for more evidence to understand relationships between counseling and discontinuation.
- Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic to Strengthen TB Infection Control: A Rapid Review
In light of competing health priorities of COVID-19 and TB, we propose recommendations to strengthen health system preparedness for optimal TB control across low- and middle-income countries during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
FIELD ACTION REPORTS
- How Home Delivery of Antiretroviral Drugs Ensured Uninterrupted HIV Treatment During COVID-19: Experiences From Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, and Nigeria
During the COVID-19 pandemic, home delivery of antiretrovirals for HIV treatment proved to be a feasible approach for ensuring treatment continuation amid facility closures and travel restrictions. Antiretroviral home delivery is a model warranting further consideration as an additional option for decentralized drug delivery for HIV treatment.
- Development of an Innovative Digital Data Collection System for Routine Mental Health Care Delivery in Rural Haiti
Mental health information systems in low-resource settings are scarce worldwide. Data collection was accurate, yet sustainable staffing was a challenge when using task-shared clinical providers for data collection in health centers in rural Haiti. Integrating mental health data collection within existing data collection systems would help close this key gap.
SHORT REPORTS
- Health System Redesign to Shift to Hospital Delivery for Maternal and Newborn Survival: Feasibility Assessment in Kakamega County, Kenya
Service delivery redesign is needed to accelerate progress toward improved health outcomes. Kakamega County, Kenya, demonstrates that there is a strong base of health system assets that would serve as a starting point to successfully implement maternal and newborn health service delivery redesign.
TECHNICAL NOTES
- Mid-Upper Arm Circumference Tapes and Measurement Discrepancies: Time to Standardize Product Specifications and Reporting
Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) is a widely used anthropometric measure to identify children with acute malnutrition. The use of different tapes of varied materials and thicknesses to measure MUAC has led to discrepancies. This indicates the need for global standardization of MUAC tape design.
COMMENTARIES
We know that both financial and nonfinancial incentives matter if we want community health workers (CHWs) who are motivated and performing. What are the practical implications for CHWs themselves and for effective management of viable CHW programs?
The World Health Organization COVID-19 Partners Platform represents the first step towards a new model of health crisis information sharing across stakeholders and could evolve into an engagement mechanism of choice for future cross-border public health emergencies.