Global eye health and the sustainable development goals: protocol for a scoping review.

Introduction: In 2015, most governments of the world committed to achieving 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) by the year 2030. Efforts to improve eye health contribute to the advancement of several SDGs, including those not exclusively health-related. This scoping review will summarise the nature and extent of the published literature that demonstrates a link between improved eye health and advancement of the SDGs.

Factors affecting HBV vaccination in a Medical training College in Kenya: A mixed methods Study.

Background: Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) is highly endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa with 70 to 90% of the population becoming infected before the age of 40 years. Healthcare workers (HCWs) including healthcare students (HCSs) are at an increased risk of contracting HBV due to occupational exposure. HCSs are especially at a high risk because of their inexperience with infection control procedures and insufficient knowledge about the level of risk when dealing with patients.

Cataract Services are Leaving Widows Behind: Examples from National Cross-Sectional Surveys in Nigeria and Sri Lanka.

The Sustainable Development Goals aim to leave no one behind. We explored the hypothesis that women without a living spouse-including those who are widowed, divorced, separated, and never married-are a vulnerable group being left behind by cataract services. Using national cross-sectional blindness surveys from Nigeria (2005-2007; = 13,591) and Sri Lanka (2012-2014; = 5779) we categorized women and men by marital status (married/not-married) and place of residence (urban/rural) concurrently.

Socio-anthropological methods to study the feasibility and acceptability of the minimally invasive autopsy from the perspective of local communities: lessons learnt from a large multi-centre study.

The minimally invasive autopsy (MIA), an innovative approach for obtaining post-mortem samples of key organs, is increasingly being recognized as a robust methodology for cause of death (CoD) investigation, albeit so far limited to pilot studies and research projects. A better understanding of the real causes of death in middle- and low-income countries, where underlying causes of death are seldom determined, would allow improved health planning, more targeted prioritization of available resources and the implementation of coherent public health policies. This paper discusses lessons learnt from the implementation of a Feasibility and Acceptability (F&A) study evaluating the MIA approach in five countries: Gabon, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique and Pakistan.

Evidence for national universal eye health plans.

Many low- and middle-income countries use national eye-care plans to guide efforts to strengthen eye-care services. The World Health Organization recognizes that evidence is essential to inform these plans. We assessed how evidence was incorporated in a sample of 28 national eye-care plans generated since the was endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2013.

Understanding the fundamental elements of global health: Using the sen capability approach as the theoretical framework for a health needs assessment in deprived communities.

Background: The health needs in poor communities are often dictated by data that is not relevant to the community. The capabilities approach (CA) offers a philosophical and practical way to frame and analyse data and apply it to a community using the World Health Organisation socioeconomic framework. This was part of the NHS Health Education England East Midlands Global Health Exchange Fellow Programme.

Quantifying nursing care delivered in Kenyan newborn units: protocol for a cross-sectional direct observational study.

Introduction: In many African countries, including Kenya, a major barrier to achieving child survival goals is the slow decline in neonatal mortality that now represents 45% of the under-5 mortality. In newborn care, nurses are the primary caregivers in newborn settings and are essential in the delivery of safe and effective care. However, due to high patient workloads and limited resources, nurses may often consciously or unconsciously prioritise the care they provide resulting in some tasks being left undone or partially done (missed care).

Effectiveness of peer support to increase uptake of retinal examination for diabetic retinopathy: study protocol for the DURE pragmatic cluster randomized clinical trial in Kirinyaga, Kenya.

Background: All patients with diabetes are at risk of developing diabetic retinopathy (DR), a progressive and potentially blinding condition. Early treatment of DR prevents visual impairment and blindness. The natural history of DR is that it is asymptomatic until the advanced stages, thus annual retinal examination is recommended for early detection.

Evaluating the role of clinical officers in providing reproductive health services in Kenya.

Background: Most sub-Saharan African countries have too few reproductive health (RH) specialists, resulting in high RH-related mortality and morbidity. In Kenya, task sharing in RH began in 2002, with the training of clinical officer(s)-reproductive health (CORH). Little is known about them and the extent of their role in the health system.

Adapting clinical practice guidelines for diabetic retinopathy in Kenya: process and outputs.

Background: The use of clinical practice guidelines envisages augmenting quality and best practice in clinical outcomes. Generic guidelines that are not adapted for local use often fail to produce these outcomes. Adaptation is a systematic and rigorous process that should maintain the quality and validity of the guideline, while making it more usable by the targeted users.

Adolescent Pregnancy and Challenges in Kenyan Context: Perspectives from Multiple Community Stakeholders.

Objective: The key objective of this paper is to provide a phenomenological account of the mental health challenges and experiences of adolescent new mothers. We explore the role of social support and the absence of empathy plays in depression among pregnant adolescents. The project also collected data on the adolescents' caregiving environment which includes the adolescents' mothers, their partners, the community, and health care workers, as well as feedback from staff nurses at the maternal and child health centers.

Cost and affordability of non-communicable disease screening, diagnosis and treatment in Kenya: Patient payments in the private and public sectors.

Introduction: The prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is rising in low- and middle-income countries, including Kenya, disproportionately to the rest of the world. Our objective was to quantify patient payments to obtain NCD screening, diagnosis, and treatment services in the public and private sector in Kenya and evaluate patients' ability to pay for the services.

Methods And Findings: We collected payment data on cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, breast and cervical cancer, and respiratory diseases from Kenyatta National Hospital, the main tertiary public hospital, and the Kibera South Health Center-a public outpatient facility, and private sector practitioners and hospitals.

Predictors of uptake of eye examination in people living with diabetes mellitus in three counties of Kenya.

Background: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a significant public health concern that is potentially blinding. Clinical practice guidelines recommend annual eye examination of patients with diabetes for early detection of DR. Our aim was to identify the demand-side factors that influence uptake of eye examination among patients already utilizing diabetes services in three counties of Kenya.

Cultural factors associated with the intent to be screened for prostate cancer among adult men in a rural Kenyan community.

Background: The aim of this study was to determine cultural factors associated with prostate cancer screening intent among adult Kenyan African men.

Methods: A cross-sectional quantitative study with an analytic design was carried out in a randomly selected sample of 155 adult men aged 25-98 years living in a rural community in Kenya. Constructs from the Theory of Planned Behaviour were used to guide this study.

The Development of a Postgraduate Orthopaedic Manual Therapy Residency Program in Nairobi, Kenya.

Introduction: There are very few opportunities for long-term, comprehensive postgraduate education in developing countries because of fiscal and human resource constraints. Therefore, physiotherapists have little opportunity following graduation to advance their skills through the improvement of clinical reasoning and treatment planning and application.

Background: To address the need for sustainable advanced instruction in physiotherapy within the country, a postgraduate Residency program was initiated in Nairobi, Kenya in 2012.

Determinants of contraceptive use among postpartum women in a county hospital in rural KENYA.

Background: There is a high unmet need for limiting and spacing child births during the postpartum period. Given the consequences of closely spaced births, and the benefits of longer pregnancy intervals, targeted activities are needed to reach this population of postpartum women. Our objective was to establish the determinants of contraceptive uptake among postpartum women in a county referral hospital in rural Kenya.

Analysis of an international collaboration for capacity building of human resources for eye care: case study of the college-college VISION 2020 LINK.

Background: There is an extreme health workforce shortage in Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa. Shortage of eye care workers impedes effective implementation of prevention of blindness programs. The World Health Organization has identified education, partnership, leadership, financing, and policy as intertwined interventions that are critical to resolving this crisis on the long term.

Common mental disorder in Nyanza province, Kenya in 2013 and its associated risk factors--an assessment of change since 2004, using a repeat household survey in a demographic surveillance site.

Background: Repeat household surveys are useful to assess change in prevalence over time, but there have been no repeat surveys of common mental disorder (CMD) in Kenya, or indeed sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore a repeat household survey of CMD and its associated risk factors was conducted in Maseno area, Kisumu county in Kenya, using a demographic surveillance site as the sample frame, in order to test the hypotheses that (a) the prevalence of CMD would increase between 2004 and 2013 due to the intervening political, social and economic pressures; (b) as in 2004, there would be no gender difference in prevalence of CMD.

Methods: One thousand one hundred ninety households were selected, and 1158 adult participants consented to be interviewed with a structured epidemiological assessment while 32 refused to participate in the study interviews, giving a response rate of 97.

Probable Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Kenya and Its Associated Risk Factors: A Cross-Sectional Household Survey.

This study aimed to assess the prevalence of probable post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and its associated risk factors in a general household population in Kenya. Data were drawn from a cross-sectional household survey of mental disorders and their associated risk factors. The participants received a structured epidemiological assessment of common mental disorders, and symptoms of PTSD, accompanied by additional sections on socio-demographic data, life events, social networks, social supports, disability/activities of daily living, quality of life, use of health services, and service use.

Alcohol consumption and hazardous drinking in western Kenya--a household survey in a health and demographic surveillance site.

Background: Alcohol use and hazardous drinking have been studied in school children and in urban areas of Kenya, but there has been no adult survey of these issues in a rural household population.

Methods: This study reports the prevalence of alcohol consumption and hazardous drinking in a household survey of a demographic surveillance site in rural Kenya. Information collected included demographic characteristics, socio-economic factors, recent life events and perceived social support.

Prevalence of malaria parasites in adults and its determinants in malaria endemic area of Kisumu County, Kenya.

Background: The prevalence of malaria parasites in adults in Africa is less well researched than in children. Therefore, a demographic surveillance site was used to conduct a household survey of adults in the malaria endemic area of Maseno division in Kisumu County near Lake Victoria.

Methods: A random survey of 1,190 adults living in a demographic health surveillance site in a malaria endemic area of 70,805 population size was conducted, measuring presence of malaria parasites by slide microscopy.

Adult psychotic symptoms, their associated risk factors and changes in prevalence in men and women over a decade in a poor rural district of Kenya.

There have been no repeat surveys of psychotic symptoms in Kenya or indeed subSaharan Africa. A mental health epidemiological survey was therefore conducted in a demographic surveillance site of a Kenyan household population in 2013 to test the hypothesis that the prevalence of psychotic symptoms would be similar to that found in an earlier sample drawn from the same sample frame in 2004, using the same overall methodology and instruments. This 2013 study found that the prevalence of one or more psychotic symptoms was 13.