Health
HealthThe prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) – such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic respiratory diseases – is surging globally. Yet despite the availability of cost-effective interventions, NCDs receive less than 3% of annual development assistance for health to low and middle income countries. The top donors in global health – including the Bill… Read more
High levels of wealth inequality with improved health statistics in South Africa (SA) provide an important opportunity to investigate non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among the poor. This paper uses two distinct national data sets to contrast patterns of mortality in rich and poor areas and explore the associations between poverty, risk factors, health care and selected… Read more
This four-page research summary highlights findings and recommendations from operations research into how to strengthen the implementation of an Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) programme and to motivate behaviour change to improve IYCF practices in northern Nigeria. The research found that the IYCF programme was viewed positively by a range of beneficiaries and stakeholders,… Read more
The single biggest barrier for countries in sub-Saharan Africa to achieving Universal Health Coverage is the lack of an adequate and well-performing health workforce. This deficit can be addressed by training more new health personnel and/or by improving the performance of the existing health workforce. So far efforts have mostly focused on training new staff… Read more
This spring, when my team from the Ebola Response Anthropology Platform evaluated Community-Based Ebola Care Centres (CCCs) in Sierra Leone, one thing we constantly heard complaints about was human-resource management. Residents of the communities where the Centres were located grumbled about favouritism: well-paying jobs in the Centres were given to friends and family of the… Read more
Kenya has one of the most vibrant economies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Economic growth is strong, and in 2014 it was announced that Kenya had crossed the threshold from a ‘low-Income country’ to a ‘lower-middle-Income country’ (LMIC). Yet, 43% of the people live on less than $1.25 a day and in some parts of Kenya only… Read more
DFID committed 12 million GBP to uplift frontline health workers’ salaries in Sierra Leone from 2010 to 2015 to support the implementation of the Free Healthcare Initiative (FHCI), launched in April 2010, which made health services free for pregnant women, children under five years of age and nursing mothers. Increasing the availability of frontline health… Read more
In this blog post Ireen Namakhoma discusses the importance of gender equity analysis within health research. In March 2015, the Global Health Action produced a special issue on Gender and Health. One of the articles which I co-authored together with colleagues from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Eleanor MacPherson, Sally Theobald and Esther Richards, highlights… Read more
In this blog post Maureen Njue discusses the purpose, use, and range of different online research ethics training courses. “For protocols to be reviewed, all the listed Principal Investigators (PIs) and co-PIs need a certificate as proof of having done an online ethics course.” “All applications must be accompanied by a certificate of completion from… Read more
Many countries are now attempting to roll out and scale up Community Health Worker (CHW) programmes. CHWs provide a wide range of health services. They are community-based workers who are trained, but have no formal professional or paraprofessional certificate. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to find out how intervention design can influence… Read more
Kenya’s community health strategy (2006) expounds the country’s plan to expand access to community health care for the whole population, through two close-to-community providers: community health workers (CHWs) (community selected community members who carry out a range of activities at household level) and community health extension workers (CHEWs) (government selected workers who supervise CHWs among… Read more