Factors Influencing Domestic Human Trafficking in Africa: Protocol for a Scoping Review.

Background: Human trafficking is a human rights violation in every region of the world. The African continent is not spared. Every year, millions of people experience significant health and social consequences.

Promoting gender equity in a home visits programme: a qualitative study in Northern Nigeria.

Background: Gender inequities remain critical determinants influencing maternal health. Harmful gender norms and gender-based violence adversely affect maternal health. Gendered division of labour, lack of access to and control of resources, and limited women's decision-making autonomy impede women's access to maternal healthcare services.

Fuzzy cognitive mapping in participatory research and decision making: a practice review.

Background: Fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) is a graphic technique to describe causal understanding in a wide range of applications. This practice review summarises the experience of a group of participatory research specialists and trainees who used FCM to include stakeholder views in addressing health challenges. From a meeting of the research group, this practice review reports 25 experiences with FCM in nine countries between 2016 and 2023.

The Equity Impact of Universal Home Visits to Pregnant Women and Their Spouses in Bauchi State, Nigeria: Secondary Analysis From a Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial.

Background: Socio-economically disadvantaged women have poor maternal health outcomes. Maternal health interventions often fail to reach those who need them most and may exacerbate inequalities. In Bauchi State, Nigeria, a recent cluster randomised controlled trial (CRCT) showed an impressive impact on maternal health outcomes of universal home visits to pregnant women and their spouses.

Experimental studies testing interventions to promote cultural safety, interculturality or antiracism in healthcare: protocol for a systematic review.

Introduction: Cultural safety, interculturality and antiracism are crucial concepts in addressing health disparities of minority and diverse groups. Measuring them is challenging, however, due to overlapping meanings and their highly contextual nature. Community engagement is essential for evaluating these concepts, yet the methods for social inclusion and protocols for participation remain unclear.

How does participatory research work: protocol for a realist synthesis.

Introduction: Participatory research science deals with partnerships underlying research, governance and ownership of research products. It is concerned with relationships behind research objectives and methods. Participatory research has gained significant traction in design of health interventions, contextualising these to local settings and stakeholder groups.

Shifting paradigm from biomedical to decolonised methods in Inuit public health research in Canada: a scoping review.

Background: The National Inuit Strategy on Research focuses on advancing Inuit governance in research, increasing ownership over data and building capacity. Responding to this call for Inuit self-determination in research, academic researchers should consider cultural safety in research and ways to promote Inuit-led methods.

Methods: This scoping review collated academic literature on public health research in Inuit communities in Canada between 2010 and 2022.

Community Participation in Primary Healthcare in the South Sudan Boma Health Initiative: A Document Analysis.

Background: Community participation is central to primary healthcare, yet there is little evidence of how this works in conflict settings. In 2016, South Sudan's Ministry of Health launched the Boma Health Initiative (BHI) to improve primary care services through community participation.

Methods: We conducted a document analysis to examine how well the BHI policy addressed community participation in its policy formulation.

Impact-Oriented Dialogue for Culturally Safe Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health in Bauchi State, Nigeria: Protocol for a Codesigned Pragmatic Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Adolescents (10-19 years) are a big segment of the Nigerian population, and they face serious risks to their health and well-being. Maternal mortality is very high in Nigeria, and rates of pregnancy and maternal deaths are high among female adolescents. Rates of HIV infection are rising among adolescents, gender violence and sexual abuse are common, and knowledge about sexual and reproductive health risks is low.

"I had to change my attitude": narratives of most significant change explore the experience of universal home visits to pregnant women and their spouses in Bauchi State, Nigeria.

Background: Universal home visits to pregnant women and their spouses in Bauchi State, northern Nigeria, discussed local evidence about maternal and child health risks actionable by households. The expected results chain for improved health behaviours resulting from the visits was based on the CASCADA model, which includes Conscious knowledge, Attitudes, Subjective norms, intention to Change, Agency to change, Discussion of options, and Action to change. Previous quantitative analysis confirmed the impact of the visits on maternal and child outcomes.

Community views on short birth interval in Northern Uganda: a participatory grounded theory.

Background: Short birth interval is associated with adverse perinatal, maternal, and infant outcomes, although evidence on actionable factors underlying short birth interval remains limited. We explored women and community views on short birth intervals to inform potential solutions to promote a culturally safe child spacing in Northern Uganda.

Methods: Gendered fuzzy cognitive mapping sessions (n = 21), focus group discussions (n = 12), and an administered survey questionnaire (n = 255) generated evidence on short birth intervals.

Communities and service providers address access to perinatal care in postconflict Northern Uganda: socialising evidence for participatory action.

Objectives: Describe participatory codesign of interventions to improve access to perinatal care services in Northern Uganda.

Study Design: Mixed-methods participatory research to codesign increased access to perinatal care. Fuzzy cognitive mapping, focus groups and a household survey identified and documented the extent of obstructions to access.

How beneficiaries see complex health interventions: a practice review of the Most Significant Change in ten countries.

Background: The Most Significant Change is a story-based evaluation approach used in many international development programs. This practice review summarises practical experience with the approach in complex health interventions in ten countries, with the objective of making it more accessible in evaluation of other complex health interventions.

Results: Participatory research practitioners and trainees discussed five themes following brief presentations by each of the seven attendees who led the exercise: (i) sampling and recruitment; (ii) phrasing the questions to elicit stories; (iii) story collection strategies; (iv) quality assurance; and (v) analysis.

Impact of home visits to pregnant women and their spouses on gender norms and dynamics in Bauchi State, Nigeria: Narratives from visited men and women.

Background: Maternal and newborn child health are priority concerns in Bauchi State, northern Nigeria. Increased male involvement in reproductive health is recommended by the World Health Organization. A trial of a program of universal home visits to pregnant women and their spouses, with an intention to increase male involvement in pregnancy and childbirth, showed improvements in actionable risk factors and in maternal morbidity.

Exploring the impact of a community participatory intervention on women's capability: a qualitative study in Gulu Northern Uganda.

Background: Community participatory interventions mobilizing women of childbearing age are an effective strategy to promote maternal and child health. In 2017, we implemented this strategy in Gulu Northern Uganda. This study explored the perceived impact of this approach on women's capability.

"Midwives do not appreciate pregnant women who come to the maternity with torn and dirty clothing": institutional delivery and postnatal care in Torit County, South Sudan: a mixed method study.

Background: South Sudan has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in the world, at 789 deaths per 100,000 live births. The majority of these deaths are due to complications during labor and delivery. Institutional delivery under the care of skilled attendants is a proven, effective intervention to avert some deaths.

Health policy mapping and system gaps impeding the implementation of reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child, and adolescent health programs in South Sudan: a scoping review.

Background: Pregnant women, neonates, children, and adolescents are at higher risk of dying in fragile and conflict-affected settings. Strengthening the healthcare system is a key strategy for the implementation of effective policies and ultimately the improvement of health outcomes. South Sudan is a fragile country that faces challenges in implementing its reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH) policies.

The Niakhar Social Networks and Health Project.

This paper presents details of the design and implementation of the Niakhar Social Networks and Health Project (NSNHP), a large, mixed-methods project funded by the U.S. National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).

Mothers' perceptions of the practice of kangaroo mother care for preterm neonates in sub-Saharan Africa: a qualitative systematic review protocol.

Objective: The objective of this review is to explore the experiences of mothers with the practice of kangaroo mother care (KMC) for preterm neonates at home in sub-Saharan Africa.

Introduction: About 7000 newborn babies die every day around the world. About 80% of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia.

Social learning, influence, and ethnomedicine: Individual, neighborhood and social network influences on attachment to an ethnomedical cultural model in rural Senegal.

The preference in many parts of the world for ethnomedical therapy over biomedical alternatives has long confounded scholars of medicine and public health. In the anthropological literature cultural and interactional contexts have been identified as fundamental mechanisms shaping adherence to ethnomedical beliefs and health seeking behaviors. In this paper, we examine the association between individual, neighborhood, and social network characteristics and the likelihood of attachment to an ethnomedical cultural model encompassing beliefs about etiology of disease, appropriate therapeutic and preventative measures, and more general beliefs about metaphysics and the efficacy of health systems in a rural population in Eastern Senegal.

[Motivations of obstetric healthcare personnel to work in rural areas in Niger.].

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the individual motivations influencing health professionals' decisions to work in rural areas. This study was conducted in three of the six districts of the Tillabery region in Niger (Tillabéry, Téra and Ouallam).

Methods: We conducted 102 in-depth interviews with health professionals (physicians, nurses and midwives), which were analysed according to thematic analysis with a mixed approach (inductive and deductive).

"The mosquitoes that destroy your face". Social impact of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in South-eastern Morocco, A qualitative study.

Objective: To document the psychosocial burden of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL) in rural communities in Southeastern Morocco.

Method: Between March and April 2015, we conducted qualitative research in communities exposed to Leishmania major or L. tropica in Errachidia and Tinghir provinces.

Understanding the factors affecting the attraction and retention of health professionals in rural and remote areas: a mixed-method study in Niger.

Background: The critical shortage of human resources in health is a critical public health problem affecting most low- and middle-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to the shortage of health professionals, attracting and retaining them in rural areas is a challenge. The objective of the study was to understand the factors that influence the attraction and retention of health professionals working in rural areas in Niger.

[Not Available].

Objectives: This study aims to describe how health professionals and managers put forward ethnocultural arguments to explain the partial failure of a maternal health policy and to discuss the potential impact of such ethnocultural representations on access to care.

Methods: This was a qualitative research socio-anthropologic in nature, making use of several methods of data collection, including in-depth interviews, informal discussions, non-participant observations conducted in health facilities, and a documentary analysis. In-depth interviews were conducted with 16 health professionals and 10 health district managers.