Conducting a health technology assessment in the West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory: lessons from a feasibility project.

Objectives: To achieve universal health coverage (UHC), countries must make difficult choices to optimize the use of scarce resources. There is a growing interest in using evidence-based priority setting processes, such as Health Technology Assessment (HTA), to inform these decisions. In 2020, the Palestinian Institute of Public Health (PNIPH) and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) initiated a pilot to test the feasibility of coproducing an HTA on breast cancer screening in the West Bank, occupied Palestinian Territory.

Understanding coverage of antenatal care in Palestine: Cross-sectional analysis of Palestinian Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, 2019-2020.

Introduction: Antenatal care is an essential component of primary healthcare, providing opportunities to screen, prevent, and treat morbidity to preserve the health of mothers and offspring. The World Health Organization now recommends a minimum of eight antenatal care contacts, instead of four, which is challenging in countries exposed to political violence and structural disparities in access to social, economic and healthcare resources as exist in Palestine. This study examines the compliance of the recommend standard of antenatal care in Palestine.

Alarmingly high prevalence of high-risk drug use among palestinian males: a cross-sectional study.

Background: The unique socioeconomic context in Palestine, characterized by political and economic tensions, creates conditions that facilitate the spread of illicit drug use among Palestinians. This paper presents findings from a 2017 survey of high-risk drug use (HRDU) among males in four regions in Palestine: the West Bank (north, middle, and south) and the Gaza Strip. These findings are essential for developing effective policies to respond to the increasing use of drugs among Palestinians.

eRegTime-Time Spent on Health Information Management in Primary Health Care Clinics Using a Digital Health Registry Versus Paper-Based Documentation: Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Digital health interventions have been shown to improve data quality and health services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Nonetheless, in LMICs, systematic assessments of time saved with the use of digital tools are rare. We ran a set of cluster-randomized controlled trials as part of the implementation of a digital maternal and child health registry (eRegistry) in the West Bank, Palestine.

A digital health registry with clinical decision support for improving quality of antenatal care in Palestine (eRegQual): a pragmatic, cluster-randomised, controlled, superiority trial.

Background: Health worker compliance with clinical guidelines is enhanced by digital clinical decision support at the point of care. The Palestinian public health system is implementing a digital maternal and child health eRegistry with clinical decision support. We aimed to compare the quality of antenatal care between clinics using the eRegistry and those using paper-based records.

Enhancing the quality of maternal and neonatal care by the Safe Childbirth Project in Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza occupied Palestinian territory (oPt): a descriptive retrospective study.

Background: The Safe Childbirth Project is a campaign, launched by WHO in 2012, to improve the quality of care for women and babies during childbirth by promoting evidence-based practice and a midwifery-led approach to care. It was intended to contribute towards achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages. In September, 2015, the project was launched in the maternity ward of Dar Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza City, to promote midwifery-led care for low-risk deliveries, with de-medicalisation of normal birth, early initiation of breastfeeding, and early detection of complications during the postpartum period.

Gestational age recorded at delivery versus estimations using antenatal care data from the Electronic Maternal and Child Health Registry in the West Bank: a comparative analysis.

Background: Estimated dates of delivery have important consequences for clinical decisions during pregnancy and labour. The Electronic Maternal and Child Health Registry (MCH eRegistry) in Palestine includes antenatal care data and birth data from hospitals. Our objective was to compare computed best estimates of gestational age in the MCH eRegistry with the gestational ages recorded by health-care providers in hospital delivery units.

Development of a targeted client communication intervention for pregnant and post-partum women: a descriptive study.

Background: Targeted client communication using text messages can inform, motivate, and remind pregnant and postpartum women to use care in a timely way. The mixed results of previous studies of the effectiveness of targeted client communication highlight the importance of theory-based co-design with users. We planned, developed, and tested a theory-based intervention tailored to pregnant and postpartum women, to be automatically distributed via an electronic maternal and child health registry in occupied Palestinian territory.

The effect of a digital targeted client communication intervention on pregnant women's worries and satisfaction with antenatal care in Palestine-A cluster randomized controlled trial.

Background: The eRegCom cluster randomized controlled trial assesses the effectiveness of targeted client communication (TCC) via short message service (SMS) to pregnant women, from a digital maternal and child health registry (eRegistry) in Palestine, on improving attendance and quality of care. In this paper, we assess whether this TCC intervention could also have unintended consequences on pregnant women's worries, and their satisfaction with antenatal care (ANC).

Methods: We interviewed a sub-sample of Arabic-speaking women attending ANC at public primary healthcare clinics, randomized to either the TCC intervention or no TCC (control) in the eRegCom trial, who were in 38 weeks of gestation and had a phone number registered in the eRegistry.

eRegCom-Quality Improvement Dashboard for healthcare providers and Targeted Client Communication to pregnant women using data from an electronic health registry to improve attendance and quality of antenatal care: study protocol for a multi-arm cluster randomized trial.

Background: This trial evaluates interventions that utilize data entered at point-of-care in the Palestinian maternal and child eRegistry to generate Quality Improvement Dashboards (QID) for healthcare providers and Targeted Client Communication (TCC) via short message service (SMS) to clients. The aim is to assess the effectiveness of the automated communication strategies from the eRegistry on improving attendance and quality of care for pregnant women.

Methods: This four-arm cluster randomized controlled trial will be conducted in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Palestine, and includes 138 clusters (primary healthcare clinics) enrolling from 45 to 3000 pregnancies per year.

Improving newborn health in countries exposed to political violence: An assessment of the availability, accessibility, and distribution of neonatal health services at Palestinian hospitals.

Introduction: Geopolitical segregation of Palestine has left a fragile healthcare system with an unequal distribution of services. Data from the Gaza Strip reflect an increase in infant mortality that coincided with a significant increase in neonatal mortality (12.0 to 20.

Exposure to violence and its relationship to mental health among young people in Palestine.

Background: Exposure to violence is a significant risk factor for the development of psychopathology in young people. Research on the mental health consequences of violence exposure in youth has focused mostly on post-traumatic stress disorder, however, the association with depression and anxiety has also been established. As a result of the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict, young Palestinians are vulnerable to exposure to various types of violence.

Development of a targeted client communication intervention to women using an electronic maternal and child health registry: a qualitative study.

Background: Targeted client communication (TCC) using text messages can inform, motivate and remind pregnant and postpartum women of timely utilization of care. The mixed results of the effectiveness of TCC interventions points to the importance of theory based interventions that are co-design with users. The aim of this paper is to describe the planning, development, and evaluation of a theory led TCC intervention, tailored to pregnant and postpartum women and automated from the Palestinian electronic maternal and child health registry.

eRegTime, Efficiency of Health Information Management Using an Electronic Registry for Maternal and Child Health: Protocol for a Time-Motion Study in a Cluster Randomized Trial.

Background: Paper-based routine health information systems often require repetitive data entry. In the West Bank, the primary health care system for maternal and child health was entirely paper-based, with care providers spending considerable amounts of time maintaining multiple files and client registers. As part of the phased national implementation of an electronic health information system, some of the primary health care clinics are now using an electronic registry (eRegistry) for maternal and child health.

Accuracy of mortality statistics in Palestine: a retrospective cohort study.

Objective: To examine the accuracy of mortality statistics in Palestine, to identify gaps and to provide evidence-based recommendations to improve mortality statistics in Palestine.

Study Design And Setting: A retrospective death registry-based study that examined a stratified random sample of death notification forms (DNFs) of patients who died in hospitals in Palestine was reported in 2012. We randomly selected 600 deceased from the Cause of Death Registry: 400 from the West Bank and 200 from the Gaza Strip.

Effective coverage of essential antenatal care interventions: A cross-sectional study of public primary healthcare clinics in the West Bank.

Background: The proportion of women attending four or more antenatal care (ANC) visits is widely used for monitoring, but provides limited information on quality of care. Effective coverage metrics, assessing if ANC interventions are completely delivered, can identify critical gaps in healthcare service delivery. We aimed to measure coverage of at least one screening and effective coverage of ANC interventions in the public health system in the West Bank, Palestine, and to explore associations between infrastructure-related and maternal sociodemographic variables and effective coverage.

Antenatal care data sources and their policy and planning implications: a Palestinian example using the Lives Saved Tool.

Background: Policy making in healthcare requires reliable and local data. Different sources of coverage data for health interventions can be utilized to populate the Lives Saved Tool (LiST), a commonly used policy-planning tool for women and children's health. We have evaluated four existing sources of antenatal care data in Palestine to discuss the implications of their use in LiST.

Comparing individual-level clinical data from antenatal records with routine health information systems indicators for antenatal care in the West Bank: A cross-sectional study.

Background: In most low- and middle-income settings, national aggregate health data is the most consistently available source for policy-making and international comparisons. In the West Bank, the paper-based health information system with manual aggregations is transitioning to an individual-level data eRegistry for maternal and child health at the point-of-care. The aim of this study was to explore beforehand how routine health information systems indicators for antenatal care can change with the introduction of the eRegistry.

Perceived peer norms, health risk behaviors, and clustering of risk behaviors among Palestinian youth.

Relatively little is known about patterns of health risk behaviors among Middle Eastern youth, including how these behaviors are related to perceived peer norms. In a sample of approximately 2,500 15-24 year old Palestinian youth, perceived engagement of general peers in alcohol consumption, drug use and sexual activity was substantially greater than youths' own (self-reported) engagement in these activities, suggesting a tendency to overestimate the prevalence of risk-taking behavior among peers. Individual participation in a risk behavior strongly covaries with the perceived levels of both friends' and peers' engagement in that behavior (p = 0.

Health risk behaviours of Palestinian youth: findings from a representative survey.

Background: There is little systematic information about health risk behaviours among youth in Middle Eastern countries, leaving public health authorities unprepared to deal with emerging public health threats at a time of major social change.

Aim: The Palestinian Youth Health Risk study investigates patterns of risk behaviours among Palestinian youth, their perceptions of the risks and benefits of such behaviours, and the relationship of exposure to violence with mental health and engagement in risk behaviours.

Methods: We conducted a representative survey among 2500 individuals aged 15-24 years in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, permitting reliable comparison across sex and rural-urban divisions.

Factors associated with depression in patients with type 2 diabetes in the Gaza Strip: a cross sectional study.

Background: About 9% of the world's population has diabetes. Most people with diabetes live in developing countries. Diabetes is the fourth leading cause of death in the occupied Palestinian territory.

eRegQual-an electronic health registry with interactive checklists and clinical decision support for improving quality of antenatal care: study protocol for a cluster randomized trial.

Background: Health worker compliance with established best-practice clinical and public health guidelines may be enhanced by customized checklists of care and clinical decision support driven by point-of-care data entry into an electronic health registry. The public health system of Palestine is currently implementing a national electronic registry (eRegistry) for maternal and child health. This trial is embedded in the national implementation and aims to assess the effectiveness of the eRegistry's interactive checklists and clinical decision support, compared with the existing paper based records, on improving the quality of care for pregnant women.

Water usage in the Gaza Strip: recommendations from a literature review and consultations with experts.

Water quality in the Gaza Strip has been severely compromised due to increasing salinity, contamination with pollutants, and lack of adequate treatment options. To provide the population of the Gaza Strip with advice on how to mitigate health risks from water we developed recommendations on using water from different sources for different purposes (such as for consumption, hygiene, amenities, and irrigation) based on a literature review and consultation with experts. Specific advice was developed for several vulnerable groups, including infants, children, pregnant or lactating women, and elderly people.

eRegistries: governance for electronic maternal and child health registries.

Background: The limited availability of maternal and child health data has limited progress in reducing mortality and morbidity among pregnant women and children. Global health agencies, leaders, and funders are prioritizing strategies that focus on acquiring high quality health data. Electronic maternal and child health registries (eRegistries) offer a systematic data collection and management approach that can serve as an entry point for preventive, curative and promotive health services.

Substance use among Palestinian youth in the West Bank, Palestine: a qualitative investigation.

Background: Youth health risk behaviors, including substance use (psychoactive substances including alcohol and illicit drugs), have been the subject of relatively limited study to date in Middle Eastern countries. This study provides insights into the perceived prevalence and patterns of alcohol and drug use among Palestinian youth.

Methods: The study was based on ten focus groups and 17 individual interviews with youth aged 16-24 years (n = 83), collected as part of the formative phase of a cross-sectional, population representative study of risk taking behaviors among Palestinian youth in the West Bank in 2012.