Strategies to increase rural maternal utilization of skilled health personnel for childbirth delivery in low- and middle-income countries: a narrative review.

Background: Skilled attendance at birth is considered key to accomplishing Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.1 aimed at reducing maternal mortality. Many maternal deaths can be prevented if a woman receives care by skilled health personnel.

Abortion in rural Ghana: Cultural norms, knowledge and attitudes.

Using qualitative methodology, semi-structured questionnaires were administered to participants in the Barakese subdistrict of Ghana in order to understand the extent to which men and women have knowledge of family planning services and in what ways cultural norms, practices, and attitudes toward abortion affect the decision to abort. Women in the community pursue abortion using unsafe methods, despite fear of shame, bleeding, infection, or death, as the perceived cost of maintaining the pregnancy is greater. Protective factors that were reported to dissuade women from pursuing unsafe abortion include fear of social disgrace, divine retribution, and death.

Forming a supplement intervention using a multi-theoretical behavior model.

Objectives: To identify behavior theory-based strategies to improve compliance with daily multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS) among rural Ghanaian women.

Methods: Components of a multi-theoretical framework were investigated in focus groups of reproductive-aged women in 6 communities.

Results: Participants were generally unaware of MMS' purpose.

The burden and correlates of hypertension in rural Ghana: a cross-sectional study.

Aim: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), of which hypertension is a major risk factor, are predicted to account for four times as many deaths as from communicable diseases by the year 2020. Hypertension, once rare, is rapidly becoming a major public health burden in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, data on its prevalence, awareness, treatment and control are paltry, especially for rural communities.

Development and validation of the Indian Adolescent Health Questionnaire.

The period of adolescence is a critical time of development. There is an urgent need to better assess adolescent health worldwide, particularly in India, a country with the world's largest adolescent population. Validated screening tools are needed to evaluate health-related risks and behaviors in this growing demographic.

Impact of early and concurrent stunting on cognition.

Undernutrition is associated with poor cognitive development, late entry into school, decreased years of schooling, reduced productivity and smaller adult stature. We use longitudinal data from 1674 Peruvian children participating in the Young Lives study to assess the relative impact of early stunting (stunted at 6-18 months of age) and concurrent stunting (stunted at 4.5-6 years of age) on cognitive ability.

Children who recover from early stunting and children who are not stunted demonstrate similar levels of cognition.

Stunting is associated with adverse cognitive development in childhood and adolescence, fewer years of schooling, decreased productivity, and reduced adult stature. Recovery from early stunting is possible; however, few studies explore whether those who demonstrate linear catch-up growth experience long-term cognitive deficits. Using longitudinal data on 1674 Peruvian children from the Young Lives study, we identified factors associated with catch-up growth and assessed whether children who displayed catch-up growth have significantly lower cognition than children who were not stunted during infancy and childhood.

Exploring the relationship between chronic undernutrition and asymptomatic malaria in Ghanaian children.

Background: A moderate association has been found between asymptomatic parasitaemia and undernutrition. However, additional investigation using the gold standard for asymptomatic parasitaemia confirmation, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), is needed to validate this association. Anthropometric measurements and blood samples from children less than five years of age in a rural Ghanaian community were used to determine if an association exists between chronic undernutrition and PCR-confirmed cases of asymptomatic malaria.