Postnatal care for newborns in Bangladesh: The importance of health-related factors and location.

Background: Bangladesh achieved Millennium Development Goal 4, a two thirds reduction in under-five mortality from 1990 to 2015. However neonatal mortality remains high, and neonatal deaths now account for 62% of under-five deaths in Bangladesh. The objective of this paper is to understand which newborns in Bangladesh are receiving postnatal care (PNC), a set of interventions with the potential to reduce neonatal mortality.

The importance of skin-to-skin contact for early initiation of breastfeeding in Nigeria and Bangladesh.

Background: Skin-to-skin contact (SSC) between mother and newborn offers numerous protective effects, however it is an intervention that has been under-utilized. Our objectives are to understand which newborns in Bangladesh and Nigeria receive SSC and whether SSC is associated with the early initiation of breastfeeding.

Methods: Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data were used to study the characteristics of newborns receiving SSC for non-facility births in Nigeria (DHS 2013) and for both facility and non-facility births in Bangladesh (DHS 2014).

Quantifying the individual-level association between income and mortality risk in the United States using the National Longitudinal Mortality Study.

Policy makers would benefit from being able to estimate the likely impact of potential interventions to reverse the effects of rapidly rising income inequality on mortality rates. Using multiple cohorts of the National Longitudinal Mortality Study (NLMS), we estimate the absolute income effect on premature mortality in the United States. A multivariate Poisson regression using the natural logarithm of equivilized household income establishes the magnitude of the absolute income effect on mortality.

Can a quality improvement project impact maternal and child health outcomes at scale in northern Ghana?

Background: Quality improvement (QI) interventions are becoming more common in low- and middle-income countries, yet few studies have presented impact evaluations of these approaches. In this paper, we present an impact evaluation of a scale-up phase of 'Project Fives Alive!', a QI intervention in Ghana that aims to improve maternal and child health outcomes. 'Project Fives Alive!' employed a QI methodology to recognize barriers to care-seeking and care provision at the facility level and then to identify, test and implement simple and low-cost local solutions that address the barriers.

Association Between Schistosoma haematobium Exposure and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection Among Females in Mozambique.

Recent evidence suggests an association between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and female genital schistosomiasis (FGS) in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Women with FGS have increased numbers of HIV target cells and cell receptors in genital and blood compartments, potentially increasing the risk of HIV transmission per sexual exposure, and the association may explain the high female:male ratio of HIV prevalence unique to sub-Saharan Africa. We investigate this association in Mozambique by linking two georeferenced, high-quality secondary data sources on HIV prevalence and Schistosoma haematobium: the AIDS Indicator Survey, and the Global Neglected Tropical Diseases (GNTD) open-source database, respectively.