Risk factors for malnutrition in Brazilian children: the role of social and environmental variables.

The article reports the effects of several socioeconomic and environmental indicators on the nutritional status (stunting, underweight, and wasting) of a sample of 802 children aged 12-35.9 months in urban and rural areas of southern Brazil. Of the social variables studied, family income and father's education level were the two risk factors that showed the strongest associations with nutritional status. The mother's education level, employment status of the head of the family, number of siblings, and family's ethnic background also showed some degree of association, but these were less significant when family income was included in the analysis. Environmental variables, particularly the type of housing, degree of crowding, and type of sewage disposal, were also strongly associated with malnutrition. The effects of having access to piped or treated water were only apparent on stunting and wasting

Socio-Economic Inequalities in the Use of Postnatal Care in India

OBJECTIVES: First, our objective was to estimate socio-economic inequalities in the use of postnatal care (PNC) compared with those in the use of care at birth and antenatal care. Second, we wanted to compare inequalities in the use of PNC between facility births and home births and to determine inequalities in the use of PNC among mothers with high-risk births. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Rich-poor ratios and concentration indices for maternity care were estimated using the third round of the District Level Household Survey conducted in India in 2007-08. Binary logistic regression models were used to examine the socio-economic inequalities associated with use of PNC after adjusting for relevant socio-economic and demographic characteristics. PNC for both mothers and newborns was substantially lower than the care received during pregnancy and child birth. Only 44% of mothers in India at the time of survey received any care within 48 hours after birth. Likewise, only 45% of newborns received check-up within 24 hours of birth. Mothers who had home births were significantly less likely to have received PNC than those who had facility births, with significant differences across the socio-economic strata. Moreover, the rich-poor gap in PNC use was significantly wider for mothers with birth complications. CONCLUSIONS: PNC use has been unacceptably low in India given the risks of mortality for mothers and babies shortly after birth. However, there is evidence to suggest that effective use of pregnancy and childbirth care in health facilities led to better PNC. There are also significant socio-economic inequalities in access to PNC even for those accessing facility-based care. The coverage of essential PNC is inadequate, especially for mothers from economically disadvantaged households. The findings suggest the need for strengthening PNC services to keep pace with advances in coverage for care at birth and prenatal services in India through targeted policy interventions

Patterns and determinants of breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices in urban informal settlements, Nairobi Kenya

BackgroundThe World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life for optimal growth, development and health. Breastfeeding should continue up to two years or more and nutritionally adequate, safe, and appropriately-fed complementary foods should be introduced at the age of six months to meet the evolving needs of the growing infant. Little evidence exists on breastfeeding and infant feeding practices in urban slums in sub-Saharan Africa. Our aim was to assess breastfeeding and infant feeding practices in Nairobi slums with reference to WHO recommendations. MethodsData from a longitudinal study conducted in two Nairobi slums are used. The study used information on the first year of life of 4299 children born between September 2006 and January 2010. All women who gave birth during this period were interviewed on breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices at recruitment and this information was updated twice, at four-monthly intervals. Cox proportional hazard analysis was used to determine factors associated with cessation of breastfeeding in infancy and early introduction of complementary foods. ResultsThere was universal breastfeeding with almost all children (99%) having ever been breastfed. However, more than a third (37%) were not breastfed in the first hour following delivery, and 40% were given something to drink other than the mothers' breast milk within 3 days after delivery. About 85% of infants were still breastfeeding by the end of the 11th month. Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months was rare as only about 2% of infants were exclusively breastfed for six months. Factors associated with sub-optimal infant breastfeeding and feeding practices in these settings include child's sex; perceived size at birth; mother's marital status, ethnicity; education level; family planning (pregnancy desirability); health seeking behaviour (place of delivery) and; neighbourhood (slum of residence). ConclusionsThe study indicates poor adherence to WHO recommendations for breastfeeding and infant feeding practices. Interventions and further research should pay attention to factors such as cultural practices, access to and utilization of health care facilities, child feeding education, and family planning. <br/

The APPLe Study: A Randomized, Community-Based, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Azithromycin for the Prevention of Preterm Birth, with Meta-Analysis

In a randomized trial in Malawi of azithromycin versus placebo in over 2,000 pregnant women, Jim Neilson and colleagues show no benefit of azithromycin for a number of outcomes including preterm birth and prenatal death

Neonatal mortality: an invisible and marginalised trauma

Neonatal mortality is a major health problem in low and middle income countries and the rate of improvement of newborn survival is slow. This article is a review of the PhD thesis by Mats Målqvist, titled ‘Who can save the unseen – Studies on neonatal mortality in Quang Ninh province, Vietnam,’ from Uppsala University. The thesis aims to investigate structural barriers to newborn health improvements and determinants of neonatal death. The findings reveal a severe under-reporting of neonatal deaths in the official health statistics in Quang Ninh province in northern Vietnam. The neonatal mortality rate (NMR) found was four times higher than what was reported to the Ministry of Health. This underestimation of the problem inhibits adequate interventions and efforts to improve the survival of newborns and highlights the invisibility of this vulnerable group

Developing community-based intervention strategies to save newborn lives: lessons learned from formative research in five countries

This paper summarizes lessons learned from formative research conducted in Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Mali and Nepal to inform the development of newborn health interventions, mostly in the context of field trials. Current practices, constraints to the adoption of optimal practices and implications for implementing inventions to improve newborn survival are discussed for: optimal care during pregnancy; skilled care at birth; optimal delivery and newborn care practices; special care of low birth weight babies; and timely and appropriate care seeking for newborn illness. General lessons concerning target audiences and intervention strategy are also drawn. In brief, interventions to reduce neonatal mortality need to start during pregnancy not only to promote birth preparedness and institutional delivery, but also to start the process of change concerning early newborn care practices. Their target audience should not only be pregnant or recently delivered women, but also include the main gatekeepers, particularly traditional birth attendants, grandmothers and other family members. Health providers' opinions also matter as care practices are less likely to change if families receive conflicting messages from different sources. Interventions are more likely to succeed if they are not simply message based, but include problem solving approaches, and a behavior change component to address community norms. Although antenatal care (ANC) is theoretically a good channel for newborn interventions, capitalising on its potential is not straightforward, and will require considerable investment and intervention development in its own right in order to improve ANC counselling, which will need to extend beyond training and tackle the many working day constraints encountered by ANC providers. Removing or subsidising the cost of deliveries may be a necessary action to increase institutional deliveries, but it is unlikely to be sufficient; measures will need to be put in place to ensure the basic quality of institutional deliveries and newborn care, and to change staff attitudes and practices. Post-natal visits should include observation of the baby, referral and counselling of the mother concerning danger signs in addition to promoting optimal care practices. The lessons learned should guide the development of interventions in other contexts, and ensure that key essential elements are not overlooked. They do not, however, mean that formative research will not be needed in other contexts, although the list of questions to address should be considerably reduced; successful intervention strategies require adaptation to make them local, context-specific if they are to be effective, and ongoing process monitoring to ensure the quality of intervention delivery, to check that it is having its intended effect, and to respond to any concerns from its implementers, recipients or the community. Finally, major gaps in evidence are highlighted. These include: establishing levels of recognition of asphyxiated babies and effectiveness of local solutions for resuscitation; clarifying the extent of the overlap between community perceptions of 'at risk' babies and low birthweight babies; developing and evaluating effective interventions to enable ANC services to deliver effective behaviour change counselling for pregnant and newborn health; evaluating effectiveness of delivering community-based newborn interventions at scale through routine services