| 1. |
- Ameh, Soter, et al.
(författare)
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Paradox of HIV stigma in an integrated chronic disease care in rural South Africa : Viewpoints of service users and providers
- 2020
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 15:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundAn integrated chronic disease management (ICDM) model was introduced by the National Department of Health in South Africa to tackle the dual burden of HIV/AIDS and non-communicable diseases. One of the aims of the ICDM model is to reduce HIV-related stigma. This paper describes the viewpoints of service users and providers on HIV stigma in an ICDM model in rural South Africa.Materials and methodsA content analysis of HIV stigmatisation in seven primary health care (PHC) facilities and their catchment communities was conducted in 2013 in the rural Agincourt sub-district, South Africa. Eight Focus Group Discussions were used to obtain data from 61 purposively selected participants who were 18 years and above. Seven In-Depth Interviews were conducted with the nurses-in-charge of the facilities. The transcripts were inductively analysed using MAXQDA 2018 qualitative software.ResultsThe emerging themes were HIV stigma, HIV testing and reproductive health-related concerns. Both service providers and users perceived implementation of the ICDM model may have led to reduced HIV stigma in the facilities. On the other hand, service users and providers thought HIV stigma increased in the communities because community members thought that home-based carers visited the homes of People living with HIV. Service users thought that routine HIV testing, intended for pregnant women, was linked with unwanted pregnancies among adolescents who wanted to use contraceptives but refused to take an HIV test as a precondition for receiving contraceptives.ConclusionsAlthough the ICDM model was perceived to have contributed to reducing HIV stigma in the health facilities, it was linked with stigma in the communities. This has implications for practice in the community component of the ICDM model in the study setting and elsewhere in South Africa.
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| 2. |
- Ameh, Soter, et al.
(författare)
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Quality of integrated chronic disease care in rural South Africa : user and provider perspectives
- 2017
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Ingår i: Health Policy and Planning. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0268-1080 .- 1460-2237. ; 32:2, s. 257-266
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The integrated chronic disease management (ICDM) model was introduced as a response to the dual burden of HIV/AIDS and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in South Africa, one of the first of such efforts by an African Ministry of Health. The aim of the ICDM model is to leverage HIV programme innovations to improve the quality of chronic disease care. There is a dearth of literature on the perspectives of healthcare providers and users on the quality of care in the novel ICDM model. This paper describes the viewpoints of operational managers and patients regarding quality of care in the ICDM model. In 2013, we conducted a case study of the seven PHC facilities in the rural Agincourt sub-district in northeast South Africa. Focus group discussions (n = 8) were used to obtain data from 56 purposively selected patients >= 18 years. In-depth interviews were conducted with operational managers of each facility and the sub-district health manager. Donabedian's structure, process and outcome theory for service quality evaluation underpinned the conceptual framework in this study. Qualitative data were analysed, with MAXQDA 2 software, to identify 17 a priori dimensions of care and unanticipated themes that emerged during the analysis. The manager and patient narratives showed the inadequacies in structure (malfunctioning blood pressure machines and staff shortage); process (irregular prepacking of drugs); and outcome (long waiting times). There was discordance between managers and patients regarding reasons for long patient waiting time which managers attributed to staff shortage and missed appointments, while patients ascribed it to late arrival of managers to the clinics. Patients reported anti-hypertension drug stock-outs (structure); sub-optimal defaulter-tracing (process); rigid clinic appointment system (process). Emerging themes showed that patients reported HIV stigmatisation in the community due to defaulter-tracing activities of home-based carers, while managers reported treatment of chronic diseases by traditional healers and reduced facility-related HIV stigma because HIV and NCD patients attended the same clinic. Leveraging elements of HIV programmes for NCDs, specifically hypertension management, is yet to be achieved in the study setting in part because of malfunctioning blood pressure machines and anti-hypertension drug stock-outs. This has implications for the nationwide scale up of the ICDM model in South Africa and planning of an integrated chronic disease care in other low-and middle-income countries.
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| 3. |
- Anchalia, Manju M, et al.
(författare)
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Seeking solutions : scaling-up audit as a quality improvement tool for infection control in Gujarat, India
- 2011
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Ingår i: International Journal for Quality in Health Care. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1353-4505 .- 1464-3677. ; 23:4, s. 464-470
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- QUALITY PROBLEM OR ISSUE: Surgical-site infections (SSIs) give rise to significant demands on the health systems as well as economic and social sequelae for patients. This article describes an audit for infection control developed in a surgical unit of a tertiary care setting in Gujarat state, India that was scaled-up to all state-owned hospitals in the district.IMPLEMENTATION: Surveillance and hospital epidemiology were established and practice reforms implemented. Monthly and annual meetings to review implementation were held.EVALUATION: After 12 months, an 88% decrease in the infection rate in the surgical unit was demonstrated. Thereafter, the process was replicated across the surgical department and for all cases undergoing surgery. After 12 months, a 67% reduction in the infection rate was detected. The process has since been applied across the state.LESSONS LEARNED: A locally owned and team-led process embedded within routine working conditions can challenge widely held perceptions, inform low-cost and no-cost remedial actions, and improve cultures of practice, quality of care and health outcomes. As urban populations grow, methods that are capable of continuously identifying, and responding to, problems and sustaining quality of care in facilities are necessary. SSIs may be largely preventable. With careful implementation, audit has the potential to be a major contributor to their reduction.
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| 4. |
- Brooks, Chloe, et al.
(författare)
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Introducing visual participatory methods to develop local knowledge on HIV in rural South Africa
- 2017
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Ingår i: BMJ Global Health. - : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 2059-7908. ; 2:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- INTRODUCTION: South Africa is a country faced with complex health and social inequalities, in which HIV/AIDS has had devastating impacts. The study aimed to gain insights into the perspectives of rural communities on HIV-related mortality.METHODS: A participatory action research (PAR) process, inclusive of a visual participatory method (Photovoice), was initiated to elicit and organise local knowledge and to identify priorities for action in a rural subdistrict underpinned by the Agincourt Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS). We convened three village-based discussion groups, presented HDSS data on HIV-related mortality, elicited subjective perspectives on HIV/AIDS, systematised these into collective accounts and identified priorities for action. Framework analysis was performed on narrative and visual data, and practice theory was used to interpret the findings.FINDINGS: A range of social and health systems factors were identified as causes and contributors of HIV mortality. These included alcohol use/abuse, gender inequalities, stigma around disclosure of HIV status, problems with informal care, poor sanitation, harmful traditional practices, delays in treatment, problems with medications and problematic staff-patient relationships. To address these issues, developing youth facilities in communities, improving employment opportunities, timely treatment and extending community outreach for health education and health promotion were identified.DISCUSSION: Addressing social practices of blame, stigma and mistrust around HIV-related mortality may be a useful focus for policy and planning. Research that engages communities and authorities to coproduce evidence can capture these practices, improve communication and build trust.CONCLUSION: Actions to reduce HIV should go beyond individual agency and structural forces to focus on how social practices embody these elements. Initiating PAR inclusive of visual methods can build shared understandings of disease burdens in social and health systems contexts. This can develop shared accountability and improve staff-patient relationships, which, over time, may address the issues identified, here related to stigma and blame.
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| 5. |
- Byass, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing the repeatability of verbal autopsy for determining cause of death : two case studies among women of reproductive age in Burkina Faso and Indonesia
- 2009
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Ingår i: Population Health Metrics. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1478-7954. ; 7:1, s. 6-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Verbal autopsy (VA) is an established tool for assessing cause-specific mortality patterns in communities where deaths are not routinely medically certified, and is an important source of data on deaths among the poorer half of the world's population. However, the repeatability of the VA process has never been investigated, even though it is an important factor in its overall validity. This study analyses repeatability in terms of the overall VA process (from interview to cause-specific mortality fractions (CSMF)), as well as specifically for interview material and individual causes of death, using data from Burkina Faso and Indonesia.METHODS: Two series of repeated VA interviews relating to women of reproductive age in Burkina Faso (n = 91) and Indonesia (n = 116) were analysed for repeatability in terms of interview material, individual causes of death and CSMFs. All the VA data were interpreted using the InterVA-M model, which provides 100% intrinsic repeatability for interpretation, and thus eliminated the need to consider variations or repeatability in physician coding.RESULTS: The repeatability of the overall VA process from interview to CSMFs was good in both countries. Repeatability was moderate in the interview material, and lower in terms of individual causes of death. Burkinabé data were less repeatable than Indonesian, and repeatability also declined with longer recall periods between the death and interview, particularly after two years.CONCLUSION: While these analyses do not address the validity of the VA process in absolute terms, repeatability is a prerequisite for intrinsic validity. This study thus adds new understanding to the quest for reliable cause of death assessment in communities lacking routine medical certification of deaths, and confirms the status of VA as an important and reliable tool at the community level, but perhaps less so at the individual level.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Byass, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Strengthening standardised interpretation of verbal autopsy data : the new InterVA-4 tool
- 2012
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Ingår i: Global Health Action. - Järfälla, Sweden : CoAction Publishing. - 1654-9716 .- 1654-9880. ; 5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Verbal autopsy (VA) is the only available approach for determining the cause of many deaths, where routine certification is not in place. Therefore, it is important to use standards and methods for VA that maximise efficiency, consistency and comparability. The World Health Organization (WHO) has led the development of the 2012 WHO VA instrument as a new standard, intended both as a research tool and for routine registration of deaths. Objective: A new public-domain probabilistic model for interpreting VA data, InterVA-4, is described, which builds on previous versions and is aligned with the 2012 WHO VA instrument. Design: The new model has been designed to use the VA input indicators defined in the 2012 WHO VA instrument and to deliver causes of death compatible with the International Classification of Diseases version 10 (ICD-10) categorised into 62 groups as defined in the 2012 WHO VA instrument. In addition, known shortcomings of previous InterVA models have been addressed in this revision, as well as integrating other work on maternal and perinatal deaths. Results: The InterVA-4 model is presented here to facilitate its widespread use and to enable further field evaluation to take place. Results from a demonstration dataset from Agincourt, South Africa, show continuity of interpretation between InterVA-3 and InterVA-4, as well as differences reflecting specific issues addressed in the design and development of InterVA-4. Conclusions: InterVA-4 is made freely available as a new standard model for interpreting VA data into causes of death. It can be used for determining cause of death both in research settings and for routine registration. Further validation opportunities will be explored. These developments in cause of death registration are likely to substantially increase the global coverage of cause-specific mortality data.
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| 8. |
- Cowan, Eilidh, et al.
(författare)
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Understanding non-communicable diseases : combining health surveillance with local knowledge to improve rural primary health care in South Africa
- 2021
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Ingår i: Global Health Action. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1654-9716 .- 1654-9880. ; 14:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: NCDs are non-infectious, long-term conditions that account for 40 million deaths per annum. 87% of premature NCD mortality occurs in low- and middle-income countries.Objective: The aims were:develop methods to provide integrated biosocial accounts of NCD mortality; and explore the practical utility of extended mortality data for the primary health care system.Methods: We drew on data from research programmes in the study area. Data were analysed in three steps: [a]analysis of levels, causes and circumstances of NCD mortality [n = 4,166] from routine census updates including Verbal Autopsy and of qualitative data on lived experiences of NCDs in rural villages from participatory research; [b] identifying areas of convergence and divergence between the analyses; and [c]exploration of the practical relevance of the data drawing on engagements with health systems stakeholders.Results: NCDs constituted a significant proportion of mortality in this setting [36%]. VA data revealed multiple barriers to access in end-of-life care. Many deaths were attributed to problems with resources and health systems [21%;19% respectively]. The qualitative research provided rich complementary detail on the processes through which risk originates, accumulates and is expressed in access to end-of-life care, related to chronic poverty and perceptions of poor quality care in clinics. The exploration of practical relevance revealed chronic under-funding for NCD services, and an acute need for robust, timely data on the NCD burden.Conclusions: VA data allowed a significant burden of NCD mortality to be quantified and revealed barriers to access at and around the time of death. Qualitative research contextualised these barriers, providing explanations of how and why they exist and persist. Health systems analysis revealed shortages of resources allocated to NCDs and a need for robust research to provide locally relevant evidence to organise and deliver care. Pragmatic interdisciplinary and mixed method analysis provides relevant renditions of complex problems to inform more effective responses.
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| 9. |
- D'Ambruoso, Lucia, et al.
(författare)
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A lost cause? Extending verbal autopsy to investigate biomedical and socio-cultural causes of maternal death in Burkina Faso and Indonesia
- 2010
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Ingår i: Social Science and Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-9536 .- 1873-5347. ; 71:10, s. 1728-1738
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Maternal mortality in developing countries is characterised by disadvantage and exclusion. Women who die whilst pregnant are typically poor and live in low-income and rural settings where access to quality care is constrained and where deaths, within and outside hospitals, often go unrecorded and unexamined. Verbal autopsy (VA) is an established method of determining cause(s) of death for people who die outside health facilities or without proper registration. This study extended VA to investigate socio-cultural factors relevant to outcomes. Interviews were conducted with relatives of 104 women who died during pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum in two rural districts in Indonesia and for 70 women in a rural district in Burkina Faso. Information was collected on medical signs and symptoms of the women prior to death and an extended section collected accounts of care pathways and opinions on preventability and cause of death. Illustrative quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed and the implications for health surveillance and planning were considered. The cause of death profiles were similar in both settings with infectious diseases, haemorrhage and malaria accounting for half the deaths. In both settings, delays in seeking, reaching and receiving care were reported by more than two-thirds of respondents. Relatives also provided information on their experiences of the emergencies revealing culturally-derived systems of explanation, causation and behaviour. Comparison of the qualitative and quantitative results suggested that the quantified delays may have been underestimated. The analysis suggests that broader empirical frameworks can inform more complete health planning by situating medical conditions within the socio-economic and cultural landscapes in which healthcare is situated and sought. Utilising local knowledge, extended VA has potential to inform the relative prioritisation of interventions that improve technical aspects of life-saving services with those that address the conditions that underlie health, for those whom services typically fail to reach.
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| 10. |
- D'Ambruoso, Lucia, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing quality of care provided by Indonesian village midwives with a confidential enquiry
- 2009
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Ingår i: Midwifery. - : Elsevier BV. - 0266-6138 .- 1532-3099. ; 25:5, s. 528-539
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: to conduct a confidential enquiry to assess the quality of care provided by Indonesian village midwives and to identify opportunities for improvement. METHODS: local health-care practitioners assessed village-based care in obstetric emergencies in 13 cases of maternal death and near-miss from rural villages in West Java. The study focused on clinical quality of care, but also investigated the influence of the health system and social factors. The reviews were based on transcripts of interviews with health-care providers, family and community members involved in the cases. Both favourable and adverse factors were identified in order to recognise positive contributions, where they occurred. At the end of a series of case reviews, recommendations for practice were generated and disseminated. FINDINGS: in the cases reviewed, midwives facilitated referral effectively, reducing delays in reaching health facilities. Midwives' emergency diagnostic skills were accurate but they were less capable in the clinical management of complications. Coverage was poor; in some locations, midwives were responsible for up to five villages. Village midwives were also perceived as unacceptable to women and their families. Families and communities did not prepare for emergencies with finances or transport, partly due to a poorly understood health insurance system. The enquiry had learning effects for those involved. KEY CONCLUSIONS: village midwives should: receive appropriate support for the management of obstetric emergencies; engage with communities to promote birth preparedness; and work in partnership with formal and informal providers in the community. The enquiry was a diagnostic tool to identify opportunities for improving care. Practitioners had a unique insight into factors that contribute to quality care and how feasible interventions might be made.
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