Background: There is mixed evidence on the cost-effectiveness of cash transfers, along with food supplements and behaviour change communication interventions in improving child nutrition outcomes. To add to existing literature, we examined the cost-effectiveness of medium-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS) and social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) messaging, separately and combined, compared to an existing unconditional cash transfers (UCT) programme in children 6-23 months of age in the district Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan.
Methods: This was a four-arm, community-based cluster randomised controlled trial.
Characteristics which reflect a particular context and unique to individuals, households, and societies have been suggested to have an impact on the association between women's empowerment and women's well-being indicators. However, there is limited empirical evidence of this effect. We used access to antenatal care (ANC) to examine the main and interaction effects of women's empowerment, religion, marriage type, and uptake of services in 13 West African countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: This study qualitatively examined dietary diversity among married women of reproductive age who engaged in two socio-economic activities to explore the dynamics of food availability, access, costs and consumption.
Design: Qualitative in-depth interviews. The food groups in the Minimum Dietary Diversity for women were used to explore women's dietary diversity.
This paper draws on data from five sub-Sahara African countries; Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique consisting of 10,041 married women who were cohabitating with a male spouse. The study aim was to investigate the relationship between women's empowerment and women's dietary diversity and consumption of different food items. Women's empowerment was measured using the indicators in the five domains of Women's Empowerment in Agriculture index (WEAI) and women's dietary diversity and food consumption was examined using the women's dietary diversity score (WDDS) measure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Over the years, the Kyrgyz Republic has implemented health reforms that target health financing with the aim of removing financial barriers to healthcare including out-of-pocket health payments (OOPPs). This study examines the trends in OOPPs, and the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) post the "Manas Taalimi" and "Den Sooluk" health reforms.
Methods: We used data from the Kyrgyzstan Integrated Household Surveys (2012-2018).
Women's empowerment has been identified as an important strategy for improving children's nutrition outcomes in many settings. Empowerment indexes that are built from cross-country routine surveys are increasingly being developed, and further disaggregated analyses of such indexes are needed to examine in-depth, the relationship between women's empowerment and outcomes including children's nutrition. The Demographic and Health Surveys across five countries in South-Central Asia was used to examine the relationship between women's empowerment and children's nutrition outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAfr J Prim Health Care Fam Med
January 2019
Background: Changing global health and development trends have resulted in a need for continued professional development (CPD) within the health and development sectors. In low-resource settings, where the need for training and CPD may be highest, there are significant challenges for disseminating information and skills. There is a need to improve mental health literacy and reduce levels of stigma about maternal mental illness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Rates of violence against women are reported to be highest in Africa compared to other continents. We aimed to determine associations between mental illness, demographic, psychosocial and economic factors with experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) among pregnant women in a low resource setting in Cape Town and to explore the contextual elements pertaining to domestic violence.
Methods: We recruited adult women attending antenatal services at a primary-level maternity facility.
A component of the 1965 Medicaid Act, the Institutions for Mental Diseases ("IMD") Exclusion was supposed to be a remedy for the brutal, dysfunctional mental healthcare system run through state hospitals. In the years since Medicaid was created, the IMD Exclusion has instead barred thousands of those in need of intensive, inpatient treatment from receiving it. As a result, many severely mentally ill individuals are left without adequate care and without a home.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAbility to influence household decision-making has been shown to increase with improved social capital and power and is linked to better access to household financial resources and other services outside the household including healthcare. To examine the male-female differences in household custody of financial resources, decision-making, and type of healthcare utilised, we used a mixed methods approach of cross-sectional household surveys and focus-group discussions (FGDs). Data was collected between 10 January-28 February 2011.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnxiety is highly prevalent in many populations; however, the burden of anxiety disorders amongst pregnant women in low-resource settings is not well documented. We investigated the prevalence and predictors of antenatal anxiety disorders amongst low-income women living with psychosocial adversity. Pregnant women were recruited from an urban, primary level clinic in Cape Town, South Africa.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Uptake of delivery and postnatal care remains low in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), where 99% of global maternal deaths take place. However, the potential impact of antenatal depression on use of institutional delivery and postnatal care has seldom been examined. This study aimed to examine whether antenatal depressive symptoms are associated with use of maternal health care services.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In low and middle-income countries (LMIC), common mental disorders affecting pregnant women receive low priority, despite their disabling effect on maternal functioning and negative impact on child health and development. We investigated the prevalence of risk factors for antenatal depression among women living in adversity in a low-resource, urban setting in Cape Town, South Africa.
Methods: The MINI Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI Plus) was used to measure the diagnostic prevalence of depression amongst women attending their first antenatal visit at a primary-level, community-based clinic.
Background: Alcohol and other drugs (AOD) use among pregnant women have been associated with adverse health outcomes for mother and child, during and after pregnancy. Factors associated with AOD use among women include age, poverty, unemployment, and interpersonal conflict. Few studies have looked at demographic, economic, and psychosocial factors as predictors of AOD use among pregnant women in low-income, peri-urban settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOut-of-pocket (OOP) payments have severe consequences for health care access and utilisation and are especially catastrophic for the poor. Although women comprise the majority of the poor in Nigeria and globally, the implications of OOP payments for health care access from a gender perspective have received little attention. This study seeks to fill this gap by using a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis to investigate the gendered impact of OOPs on healthcare utilisation in south-eastern Nigeria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In South Africa, community service following medical training serves as a mechanism for equitable distribution of health professionals and their professional development. Community service officers are required to contribute a year towards serving in a public health facility while receiving supervision and remuneration. Although the South African community service programme has been in effect since 1998, little is known about how placement and practical support occur, or how community service may impact future retention of health professionals.
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