Home visits for preterm/low birthweight infants in South Africa: Qualitative evidence synthesis.

Background: Prematurity and low birth weight (LBW) are the main causes of neonatal mortality in South Africa (SA). Home visits by lay health workers (LHWs) may be effective in addressing this.

Aim: To inform a national guideline on LHW home visits as part of the Global Evidence, Local Adaptation (GELA) project, we conducted a rapid qualitative evidence synthesis exploring the acceptability, feasibility and equitability of this intervention for preterm and LBW babies.

Applying CFIR to assess multi-level barriers to PrEP delivery in rural South Africa: Processes, gaps and opportunities for service delivery of current and future PrEP modalities.

Despite established efficacy for oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in reducing HIV incidence, multi-level barriers within the health system, clinics, and the processes that shape practice have hindered service delivery and subsequent population-level effects. We applied the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to assess the context of PrEP delivery for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in rural South Africa and identify the factors supporting and impeding PrEP implementation to develop strategies to improve PrEP delivery. Between 2021 and 2022, we conducted in-depth interviews with five young women with PrEP use experience and 11 healthcare providers as well as four key informant stakeholder interviews.

Using a priority setting exercise to identify priorities for guidelines on newborn and child health in South Africa, Malawi, and Nigeria.

Background: Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest under-five mortality rate globally. Child healthcare decisions should be based on rigorously developed evidence-informed guidelines. The Global Evidence, Local Adaptation (GELA) project is enhancing capacity to use global research to develop locally relevant guidelines for newborn and child health in South Africa (SA), Malawi, and Nigeria.

Newborn and child health national and provincial clinical practice guidelines in South Africa, Nigeria and Malawi: a scoping review.

Background: Low and middle-income countries remain disproportionately affected by high rates of child mortality. Clinical practice guidelines are essential clinical tools supporting implementation of effective, safe, and cost-effective healthcare. High-quality evidence-based guidelines play a key role in improving clinical management to impact child mortality.

Expanding Community Health Worker decision space: learning from a Participatory Action Research training intervention in a rural South African district.

Background: While integral to decentralising health reforms, Community Health Workers (CHWs) in South Africa experience many challenges. During COVID-19, CHW roles changed rapidly, shifting from communities to clinics. In the contexts of new roles and re-engineered primary healthcare (PHC), the objectives were to: (a) implement a training intervention to support local decision-making capability of CHWs; and (b) assess learning and impacts from the perspectives of CHWs.

Participatory action research to address lack of safe water, a community-nominated health priority in rural South Africa.

Background: Despite international evidence supporting community participation in health for improved health outcomes and more responsive and equitable health systems there is little practical evidence on how to do this. This work sought to understand the process involved in collective implementation of a health-related local action plan developed by multiple stakeholders.

Methods: Communities, government departments and non-government stakeholders convened in three iterative phases of a participatory action research (PAR) learning cycle.

Correction: 'Voice needs teeth to have bite'! Expanding community-led multisectoral action-learning to address alcohol and drug abuse in rural South Africa.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.

Realising radical potential: building community power in primary health care through Participatory Action Research.

Background: While community participation is an established pro-equity approach in Primary Health Care (PHC), it can take many forms, and the central category of power is under-theorised. The objectives were to (a) conduct theory-informed analysis of community power-building in PHC in a setting of structural deprivation and (b) develop practical guidance to support participation as a sustainable PHC component.

Methods: Stakeholders representing rural communities, government departments and non-governmental organisations engaged through a participatory action research (PAR) process in a rural sub-district in South Africa.

'Voice needs teeth to have bite'! Expanding community-led multisectoral action-learning to address alcohol and drug abuse in rural South Africa.

There is limited operational understanding of multisectoral action in health inclusive of communities as active change agents. The objectives were to: (a) develop community-led action-learning, advancing multisectoral responses for local public health problems; and (b) derive transferrable learning. Participants representing communities, government departments and non-governmental organisations in a rural district in South Africa co-designed the process.

Comment on Hosseini et al. Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation on COVID-19 Related Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. 2022, , 2134.

Medicines have been re-purposed as therapeutics for COVID-19 and it is with great interest that we read the publication entitled, "Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation on COVID-19 Related Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis" [...

Burden of mortality linked to community-nominated priorities in rural South Africa.

Background: Community knowledge is a critical input for relevant health programmes and strategies. How community perceptions of risk reflect the burden of mortality is poorly understood.

Objective: To determine the burden of mortality reflecting community-nominated health risk factors in rural South Africa, where a complex health transition is underway.

Developing stakeholder participation to address lack of safe water as a community health concern in a rural province in South Africa.

Background: Despite legislative and policy commitments to participatory water governance in South Africa, and some remarkable achievements, there has been limited progress to improve the water infrastructure servicing in marginalized rural communities. Around five million South Africans still do not have access to safe water.

Objective: This paper seeks to understand and advance processes to engage multisectoral stakeholders to respond to lack of safe water as a community-nominated health priority in rural South Africa.

Collective reflections on the first cycle of a collaborative learning platform to strengthen rural primary healthcare in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Background: Frontline managers and health service providers are constrained in many contexts from responding to community priorities due to organizational cultures focused on centrally defined outputs and targets. This paper presents an evaluation of the Verbal Autopsy with Participatory Action Research (VAPAR) programme-a collaborative learning platform embedded in the local health system in Mpumalanga, South Africa-for strengthening of rural primary healthcare (PHC) systems. The programme aims to address exclusion from access to health services by generating and acting on research evidence of practical, local relevance.

Building cooperative learning to address alcohol and other drug abuse in Mpumalanga, South Africa: a participatory action research process.

: Alcohol and other drug (AOD) abuse is a major public health challenge disproportionately affecting marginalised communities. Involving communities in the development of responses can contribute to acceptable solutions.: To: (1) document forms, processes, and contexts of engaging communities to nominate health concerns and generate new knowledge for action; (2) further build participation in the local health system by reflecting on and adapting the process.

Verbal Autopsy with Participatory Action Research (VAPAR) programme in Mpumalanga, South Africa: protocol for evaluation.

Introduction: There is a growing recognition of the importance of developing learning health systems which can engage all stakeholders in cycles of evidence generation, reflection, action and learning from action to deal with adaptive problems. There is however limited evaluative evidence of approaches to developing or strengthening such systems, particularly in low-income and middle-income settings. In this protocol, we aim to contribute to developing and sharing knowledge on models of building collaborative learning platforms through our evaluation of the Verbal Autopsy with Participatory Action Research (VAPAR) programme.

'Water is life': developing community participation for clean water in rural South Africa.

Background: South Africa is a semiarid country where 5 million people, mainly in rural areas, lack access to water. Despite legislative and policy commitments to the right to water, cooperative governance and public participation, many authorities lack the means to engage with and respond to community needs. The objectives were to develop local knowledge on health priorities in a rural province as part of a programme developing community evidence for policy and planning.