Praying until death: apostolicism, delays and maternal mortality in zimbabwe

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.,Religion affects people’s daily lives by solving social problems, although it creates others. Female sexual and reproductive health are among the issues most affected by religion. Apostolic sect members in Zimbabwe have been associated with higher maternal mortality. We explored apostolic beliefs and practices on maternal health using 15 key informant interviews in 5 purposively selected districts of Zimbabwe. Results show that apostolicism promotes high fertility, early marriage, non-use of contraceptives and low or non-use of hospital care. It causes delays in recognizing danger signs, deciding to seek care, reaching and receiving appropriate health care. The existence of a customized spiritual maternal health system demonstrates a huge desire for positive maternal health outcomes among apostolics. We conclude that apostolic beliefs and practices exacerbate delays between onset of maternal complications and receiving help, thus increasing maternal risk. We recommend complementary and adaptive approaches that address the maternal health needs of apostolics in a religiously sensitive manner

Zimbabwe (2013): Qualitative Segmentation Study on Cervical Cancer Screening Behaviors among Women aged 30 Years and above in Zimbabwe

The PSI Zimbabwe program seeks to promote cervical cancer screening behaviours through planning and implementation of screening programs at community level. Cervical cancer screening is a generally new service. Thus, raising knowledge and awareness, communicating the benefits and improving the availability of services is important to increase demand and uptake of services. However, very little is known about the existing barriers and facilitating factors. This study a imed to help answer numerous questions around the creation of appropriate communications for increased uptake of the promoted behaviour. Through this qualitative investigation, PSI/Zimbabwe sought to gain an in-depth understanding of knowledge levels on cervical cancer screening. The results of this study will inform a communication strategy that seeks to create awareness of the health problem and thereafter shape marketing plans for demand creation. An exclusively qualitative approach using in-depth interviews was adopted among women aged 30 - 49 years and women living with HIV of any age above 18 years. Twenty females over 30 years of age, and those of any age above 18 years if HIV positive, were purposively selected to participate in the study. Ten (10) of them had been previously screened using Visual inspection using acetic acid (VIA) at least once and ten (10) had never been screened before. Three (3) of those ever screened were HIV positive. Participants were drawn from Harare, Bulawayo, Chiredzi and Mazowe. Trained moderators/interviewers were involved in the recruitment study participants. Data analysis used the nine codes of the qualitative segmentation framework. Outputs of the study included a frequency intensity chart, code summaries and the dashboard

Zimbabwe (2014): Qualitative Segmentation Study on Condom Use among Women and Men Aged 15-49 Years in Zimbabwe.

PSI/Zimbabwe is implementing a Multi-year USAID and DFID funded HIV prevention program targeting sexually active Zimbabwean men and women ages 15-49 years. The program goal is to reduce HIV incidence and the impact of HIV and AIDS on Zimbabweans. The aim of this study was to identify motivators and barriers to consistent condom use among adults 15 to 49 years: Specifically, the study objectives were to: Identify factors explaining consistent condoms use; Build one or more profiles that portray the characteristics of condom users and non-users; Identify current strategies used by men and women to overcome obstacles to correct and consistent condom use; Describe how to get information to target audience; Describe men and women past experiences with condom use and alternative behaviours; Understand how men and women perceive adopters and non-adopters of condom use behaviour. This study was conducted among men and women age 15- 49 years residing in both rural and urban areas in Zimbabwe. Twenty four (24) respondents were purposively selected to participate in the study, eight (8) being men and sixteen (16) being women. An exclusively qualitative approach using in-depth interviews was used to collect data in one on one audio recorded qualitative interview. Trained moderators/interviewers recruited study participants, in collaboration with PSI care and Protector Plus (PP) sales agents who would use their records to identify potential participants

Zimbabwe 2013: TRaC Study Evaluating Knowledge on HIV, Family Planning and Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision amongst Population Aged 15 - 49 years, in Zimbabwe

PSI/Z conducted a cross sectional population based survey in (February and March 2013). Male and female respondents aged 15-49 years were randomly sampled from households in both urban and rural areas. The study sample was selected in two stages. In the first stage, enumeration areas (EAs) were randomly selected using probability proportionate to size . EAs are geographic areas used for sampling purposes. In the second stage, households within the selected EAs were selected using simple random sampling. In households where more than one eligible respondent was available, a respondent was randomly selected using the Kish grid method.The main objective of this study is to add to the body of knowledge on HIV, Family Planning, and Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision. Analysis was performed using SPSS version 16 and results presented in PSI Dashboard format. This TRaC will provide evidence for monitoring and evaluating implementation of PSI Zimbabwe's HIV prevention and risk reduction program, Family Planning (FP) and also segmentation for the Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) interventions. This information will be used to develop interventions and communications for the interventions

Zimbabwe (2013): Qualitative Segmentation Study on understanding the motivators and barriers to accessing services among women aged 18-49 years who have experienced violence in Zimbabwe

This study sought to understand the barriers and motivation to accessing services among women aged 18-49 years who have experienced violence in Zimbabwe as well as to inform profiling of a women or a girl who access service after experiencing violence. This was a qualitative study design employing in-depth interviews with women and men aged 18 to 49 years residing in both rural and urban Zimbabwe. 36 participants and 4 FGDs were purposively selected to participate in the study. These include 18 partici pants and 2 FGDs in rural areas and 18 participants and 2 FGDs in urban areas. These also include 8 male participants and 10 female participants for rural areas and 8 male participants and 10 female participants for urban areas

Zimbabwe (2012): MAP Study Evaluating the Availability of Protector Plus, Care and WaterGuard in Zimbabwe. Round [5].

Population Services International Zimbabwe (PSI/Z) uses commercial marketing and distribution strategies to bring health products, services and messages to vulnerable populations in Zimbabwe. PSI/Z works under the mandate of the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare (MOCHW), implementing interventions in HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support, family planning, maternal, newborn and child health. This MAP survey round was conducted to assess the geographical coverage and quality of coverage of three products, namely Protector Plus male condoms, Care female condoms and WaterGuard water treatment solution. The study also estimated levels of penetration by computing the proportion of outlets stocking Protector Plus condoms. For WaterGuard, storage practices were also investigated. This MAP study sought to measure access and performance of three socially marketed products. Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) technique was used to draw a sample of 19 wards within each supervision area (SA), i.e. a district. A sample size of 19 gives reasonably accurate estimates with an acceptable error margin for decision making. For this study, the district and specific high-risk areas were defined as supervision areas. A total of 62 districts and 24 high-risk areas comprising 19 growth points and 5 border towns were selected. In cases where a district had fewer than 19 wards, a census of all the wards was done. In such cases, LQAS was not used but a direct percentage value was calculated to determine whether the SA reached the target coverage rate or not. Wards with no outlets were considered to be with no coverage. In the sampled wards a comprehensive auditing of all outlets was done. Data were collected in December 2011 and January 2012 and processed using ArcGIS and SPSS Version 21.0 computer software