Latest Articles
- Simulated clients reveal factors that may limit contraceptive use in Kisumu, Kenya
While the quality of family planning service delivery was often good, clients reported barriers including: excessively long waiting times, provider absences, informal fees, inappropriate pregnancy tests, misinformation, and provider disrespect. Improved monitoring and oversight of facility practices and examination of provider needs and motivations may increase quality of service.
- Injectable contraception provided by community-based health workers: one important step toward meeting unmet need
Community-based provision of injectable contraception continues to advance and is gaining wider acceptance—a major step toward meeting unmet need. However, fully addressing family planning need will require access to a much wider range of methods, including long-acting reversible contraception and permanent methods.
- Provider-generated barriers to health services access and quality still persist
Barriers to access and quality, such as long waits, disrespectful provider behavior, and medical barriers, continue to constrain health programs. Reducing them further requires a multipronged management approach that includes understanding and addressing provider behavior and the real problems providers face.
- Dedicated inserter facilitates immediate postpartum IUD insertion
A specially designed inserter aims at facilitating IUD insertion within 10 minutes to 48 hours after delivery during the postpartum period when demand for, and health benefits of, contraception are high.
- Does free pregnancy testing reduce service denial in family planning clinics? A cluster-randomized experiment in Zambia and Ghana
Pregnancy tests, which cost very little (∼US$0.10) and are often required for successful family planning service delivery, may reduce service denial, and should be available in all family planning clinics at no or minimal cost to clients.
- Understanding where parents take their sick children and why it matters: a multi-country analysis
To effectively reach children with potentially life-threatening illness with needed treatment, it is important to understand where parents seek care. Data from 42 DHS and MICS surveys conducted since 2005 show that a majority of care in Africa is sought from the public sector; in South Asia, from the private sector; and in Southeast Asia, from a public-private mix. We recommend that such data be made available in standard DHS and MICS reports.
- Factors limiting immunization coverage in urban Dili, Timor-Leste
Simple access to immunization services does not necessarily translate into uptake of services. In Timor-Leste, key determinants of the success of vaccination efforts are health workers' attitudes, the manner in which patients are treated, aspects of service organization, adequate supply of vaccines, and caregivers' basic knowledge about immunization.
- Achieving better maternal and newborn outcomes: coherent strategy and pragmatic, tailored implementation
Maternal and newborn health program effort needs to: shift from mere contact to the actual content or substance of care; respond better to local context; ensure delivery of all key interventions needed during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and postnatally; and actively monitor performance to manage and improve programs.
- Islam and family planning: changing perceptions of health care providers and medical faculty in Pakistan
Training health care providers and medical college faculty about the supportive nature of Islam toward family planning principles addressed their misconceptions and enhanced their level of comfort in providing family planning services and teaching the subject.
- Forest cover associated with improved child health and nutrition: evidence from the Malawi Demographic and Health Survey and satellite data
In Malawi, net forest cover loss over time is associated with reduced dietary diversity and consumption of vitamin A-rich foods among children. Greater forest cover is associated with reduced risk of diarrheal disease. These preliminary findings suggest that protection of natural ecosystems could play an important role in improving health outcomes.