| 1. |
- Apolot, Rebecca R., et al.
(författare)
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Maternal health challenges experienced by adolescents; could community score cards address them? : A case study of Kibuku District- Uganda
- 2020
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Ingår i: International Journal for Equity in Health. - : BMC. - 1475-9276. ; 19:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: Approximately 34.8% of the Ugandan population is adolescents. The national teenage pregnancy rate is 25% and in Kibuku district, 17.6% of adolescents aged 12-19 years have begun child bearing. Adolescents mothers are vulnerable to many maternal health challenges including; stigma, unfriendly services and early marriages. The community score card (CSC) is a social accountability tool that can be used to point out challenges faced by the community in service delivery and utilization and ultimately address them. In this paper we aimed to document the challenges faced by adolescents during pregnancy, delivery and postnatal period and the extent to which the community score card could address these challenges.Methods: This qualitative study utilized in-depth interviews conducted in August 2018 among 15 purposively selected adolescent women who had given birth 2 years prior to the study and had attended CSC meetings. The study was conducted in six sub counties of Kibuku district where the CSC intervention was implemented. Research assistants transcribed the audio-recorded interviews verbatim, and data was analyzed manually using the framework analysis approach.Findings: This study found five major maternal health challenges faced by adolescents during pregnancy namely; psychosocial challenges, physical abuse, denial of basic human rights, unfriendly adolescent services, lack of legal and cultural protection, and lack of birth preparedness. The CSC addressed general maternal and new born health issues of the community as a whole rather than specific adolescent health related maternal health challenges.Conclusion: The maternal health challenges faced by adolescents in Kibuku have a cultural, legal, social and health service dimension. There is therefore need to look at a multi-faceted approach to holistically address them. CSCs that are targeted at the entire community are unlikely to address specific needs of vulnerable groups such as adolescents. To address the maternal health challenges of adolescents, there is need to have separate meetings with adolescents, targeted mobilization for adolescents to attend meetings and deliberate inclusion of their maternal health challenges into the CSC.
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| 2. |
- Ekirapa-Kiracho, Elizabeth, et al.
(författare)
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'Nurture the sprouting bud; do not uproot it'. Using saving groups to save for maternal and newborn health : lessons from rural Eastern Uganda
- 2017
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Ingår i: Global Health Action. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1654-9716 .- 1654-9880. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Saving groups are increasingly being used to save in many developing countries. However, there is limited literature about how they can be exploited to improve maternal and newborn health.Objectives: This paper describes saving practices, factors that encourage and constrain saving with saving groups, and lessons learnt while supporting communities to save through saving groups.Methods: This qualitative study was done in three districts in Eastern Uganda. Saving groups were identified and provided with support to enhance members' access to maternal and newborn health. Fifteen focus group discussions (FGDs) and 18 key informant interviews (KIIs) were conducted to elicit members' views about saving practices. Document review was undertaken to identify key lessons for supporting saving groups. Qualitative data are presented thematically.Results: Awareness of the importance of saving, safe custody of money saved, flexible saving arrangements and easy access to loans for personal needs including transport during obstetric emergencies increased willingness to save with saving groups. Saving groups therefore provided a safety net for the poor during emergencies. Poor management of saving groups and detrimental economic practices like gambling constrained saving. Efficient running of saving groups requires that they have a clear management structure, which is legally registered with relevant authorities and that it is governed by a constitution.Conclusions: Saving groups were considered a useful form of saving that enabled easy acess to cash for birth preparedness and transportation during emergencies. They are like 'a sprouting bud that needs to be nurtured rather than uprooted', as they appear to have the potential to act as a safety net for poor communities that have no health insurance. Local governments should therefore strengthen the management capacity of saving groups so as to ensure their efficient running through partnerships with non-governmental organizations that can provide support to such groups.
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| 3. |
- Kananura, Rornald Muhumuza, et al.
(författare)
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A structural equation analysis on the relationship between maternal health services utilization and newborn health outcomes : a cross-sectional study in Eastern Uganda
- 2017
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Ingår i: BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2393 .- 1471-2393. ; 17
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Neonatal and maternal health services have a bearing on neonatal mortality. Direct and indirect factors affecting neonatal health outcomes therefore require understanding to enable well-targeted interventions. This study, therefore, assessed the interrelationship between newborn health outcomes and maternal service utilization factors.Methods: We investigated maternal health utilization factors using health facility delivery and at least four Antenatal Care (ANC) visits; and newborn health outcomes using newborn death and low birth weight (LBW). We used data from a household cross-sectional survey that was conducted in 2015 in Kamuli, Pallisa and Kibuku districts. We interviewed 1946 women who had delivered in the last 12 months. The four interrelated (Endogenous) outcomes were ANC attendance, health facility delivery, newborn death, and LBW. We performed analysis using a structural equation modeling technique.Results: A history of newborn death (aOR = 12.64, 95% CI 5.31–30.10) and birth of a LBW baby (aOR = 3.51, 95% CI 1.48–8.37) were directly related to increased odds of newborn death. Factors that reduced the odds of LBW as a mediating factor for newborn death were ANC fourth time attendance (aOR = 0.62, 95% CI 0.45–0.85), having post-primary level education (aOR = 0.68, 95% CI 0.46–0.98) compared to none and being gravida three (aOR = 0.49, 95% CI 0.26–0.94) compared to being gravida one. Mother’s age group, 20–24 (aOR = 0.24, 95% CI 0.08–0.75) and 25–29 years (aOR = 0.20, 95% CI 0.05–0.86) compared to 15–19 years was also associated with reduced odds of LBW. Additionally, ANC visits during the first trimester (aOR = 2.04, 95% CI 1.79–2.34), and village health teams (VHTs) visits while pregnant (aOR = 1.14, 95% CI 1.01–1.30) were associated with increased odds of at least four ANC visits, which is a mediating factor for health facility delivery, LBW and newborn death. Surprisingly, newborn death was not significantly different between health facility and community deliveries.Conclusions: Attending ANC at least four times was a mediating factor for reduced newborn death and low birth weight. Interventions in maternal health and newborn health should focus on factors that increase ANC fourth time attendance and those that reduce LBW especially in resource-limited settings. Targeting women with high-risk pregnancies is also crucial for reducing newborn deaths.
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| 4. |
- Kiracho, Elizabeth Ekirapa, et al.
(författare)
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Influence of community scorecards on maternal and newborn health service delivery and utilization
- 2020
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Ingår i: International Journal for Equity in Health. - : BMC. - 1475-9276. ; 19:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: The community score card (CSC) is a participatory monitoring and evaluation tool that has been employed to strengthen the mutual accountability of health system and community actors. In this paper we describe the influence of the CSC on selected maternal and newborn service delivery and utilization indicators.Methods: This was a mixed methods study that used both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. It was implemented in five sub-counties and one town council in Kibuku district in Uganda. Data was collected through 17 key informant interviews and 10 focus group discussions as well as CSC scoring and stakeholder meeting reports. The repeated measures ANOVA test was used to test for statistical significance. Qualitative data was analyzed manually using content analysis. The analysis about the change pathways was guided by the Wild and Harris dimensions of change framework.Results: There was an overall improvement in the common indicators across sub-counties in the project area between the 1st and 5th round scores. Almost all the red scores had changed to green or yellow by round five except for availability of drugs and mothers attending Antenatal care (ANC) in the first trimester. There were statistically significant differences in mean scores for men escorting their wives for ante natal care (ANC) (F(4,20) = 5.45, P = 0.01), availability of midwives (F(4,16) =5.77, P < 0.01), availability of delivery beds (F(4,12) =9.00, P < 0.01) and mothers delivering from traditional birth attendants (TBAs), F(4,16) = 3.86, p = 0.02). The qualitative findings suggest that strengthening of citizens' demand, availability of resources through collaborative problem solving, increased awareness about targeted maternal health services and increased top down performance pressure contributed to positive changes as perceived by community members and their leaders.Conclusions and recommendations: The community score cards created opportunities for community leaders and communities to work together to identify innovative ways of dealing with the health service delivery and utilization challenges that they face. Local leaders should encourage the availability of safe spaces for dialogue between communities, health workers and leaders where performance and utilization challenges can be identified and solutions proposed and implemented jointly.
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| 5. |
- Paina, Ligia, et al.
(författare)
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Applying the model of diffusion of innovations to understand facilitators for the implementation of maternal and neonatal health programmes in rural Uganda
- 2019
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Ingår i: Globalization and Health. - : BioMed Central. - 1744-8603. ; 15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Uganda, more than 336 out of every 100,000 women die annually during childbirth. Pregnant women, particularly in rural areas, often lack the financial resources and means to access health facilities in a timely manner for quality antenatal, delivery, and post-natal services. For nearly the past decade, the Makerere University School of Public Health researchers, through various projects, have been spearheading innovative interventions, embedded in implementation research, to reduce barriers to access to care. In this paper, we describe two of projects that were initially conceived to tackle the financial barriers to access to care - through a voucher program in the community - on the demand side - and a series of health systems strengthening activities at the district and facility level - on the supply side. Over time, the projects diverged in the content of the intervention and the modality in which they were implemented, providing an opportunity for reflection on innovation and scaling up. In this short report, we used an adaptation of Greenhalgh's Model of Diffusion to reflect on these projects' approaches to implementing innovative interventions, with the ultimate goal of reducing maternal and neonatal mortality in rural Uganda. We found that the adapted model of diffusion of innovations facilitated the emergence of insights on barriers and facilitators to the implementation of health systems interventions. Health systems research projects would benefit from analyses beyond the implementation period, in order to better understand how adoption and diffusion happen, or not, over time, after the external catalyst departs.
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| 6. |
- Tetui, Moses, et al.
(författare)
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A participatory action research approach to strengthening health managers' capacity at district level in Eastern Uganda
- 2017
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Ingår i: Health Research Policy and Systems. - : BioMed Central. - 1478-4505. ; 15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Many approaches to improving health managers' capacity in poor countries, particularly those pursued by external agencies, employ non-participatory approaches and often seek to circumvent (rather than strengthen) weak public management structures. This limits opportunities for strengthening local health managers' capacity, improving resource utilisation and enhancing service delivery. This study explored the contribution of a participatory action research approach to strengthening health managers' capacity in Eastern Uganda.Methods: This was a qualitative study that used open-ended key informant interviews, combined with review of meeting minutes and observations to collect data. Both inductive and deductive thematic analysis was undertaken. The Competing Values Framework of organisational management functions guided the deductive process of analysis and the interpretation of the findings. The framework builds on four earlier models of management and regards them as complementary rather than conflicting, and identifies four managers' capacities (collaborate, create, compete and control) by categorising them along two axes, one contrasting flexibility versus control and the other internal versus external organisational focus.Results: The findings indicate that the participatory action research approach enhanced health managers' capacity to collaborate with others, be creative, attain goals and review progress. The enablers included expanded interaction spaces, encouragement of flexibility, empowerment of local managers, and the promotion of reflection and accountability. Tension and conflict across different management functions was apparent; for example, while there was a need to collaborate, maintaining control over processes was also needed. These tensions meant that managers needed to learn to simultaneously draw upon and use different capacities as reflected by the Competing Values Framework in order to maximise their effectiveness.Conclusions: Improved health manager capacity is essential if sustained improvements in health outcomes in low-income countries are to be attained. The expansion of interaction spaces, encouragement of flexibility, empowerment of local managers, and the promotion of reflection and accountability were the key means by which participatory action research strengthened health managers' capacity. The participatory approach to implementation therefore created opportunities to strengthen health managers' capacity.
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| 7. |
- Tetui, Moses, et al.
(författare)
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Building a competent health manager at district level : a grounded theory study from Eastern Uganda
- 2016
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Ingår i: BMC Health Services Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1472-6963. ; 16
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Health systems in low-income countries are often characterized by poor health outcomes. While many reasons have been advanced to explain the persistently poor outcomes, management of the system has been found to play a key role. According to a WHO framework, the management of health systems is central to its ability to deliver needed health services. In this study, we examined how district managers in a rural setting in Uganda perceived existing approaches to strengthening management so as to provide a pragmatic and synergistic model for improving management capacity building.Methods: Twenty-two interviews were conducted with district level administrative and political managers, district level health managers and health facility managers to understand their perceptions and definitions of management and capacity building. Kathy Charmaz's constructive approach to grounded theory informed the data analysis process.Results: An interative, dynamic and complex model with three sub-process of building a competent health manager was developed. A competent manager was understood as one who knew his/her roles, was well informed and was empowered to execute management functions. Professionalizing health managers which was viewed as the foundation, the use of engaging learning approaches as the inside contents and having a supportive work environment the frame of the model were the sub-processes involved in the model. The sub-processes were interconnected although the respondents agreed that having a supportive work environment was more time and effort intensive relative to the other two sub-processes.Conclusions: The model developed in our study makes four central contributions to enhance the WHO framework and the existing literature. First, it emphasizes management capacity building as an iterative, dynamic and complex process rather than a set of characteristics of competent managers. Second, our model suggests the need for professionalization of health managers at different levels of the health system. Third, our model underscores the benefits that could be accrued from the use of engaging learning approaches through prolonged and sustained processes that act in synergy. Lastly, our model postulates that different resource investments and a varied range of stakeholders could be required at each of the sub-processes.
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| 8. |
- Tetui, Moses, et al.
(författare)
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Elements for harnessing participatory action research to strengthen health managers' capacity : a critical interpretative synthesis
- 2018
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Ingår i: Health Research Policy and Systems. - : BioMed Central. - 1478-4505. ; 16
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Health managers play a key role in ensuring that health services are responsive to the needs of the population. Participatory action research (PAR) is one of the approaches that have been used to strengthen managers’ capacity. However, collated knowledge on elements for harnessing PAR to strengthen managers’ capacity is missing. This paper bridges this gap by reviewing existing literature on the subject matter.Methods: A critical interpretive synthesis method was used to interrogate eight selected articles. These articles reported the use of PAR to strengthen health managers’ capacity. The critical interpretive synthesis method’s approach to analysis guided the synthesis. Here, the authors interpretively made connections and linkages between different elements identified in the literature. Finally, the Atun et al. (Heal Pol Plann, 25:104–111, 2010) framework on integration was used to model the elements synthesised in the literature into five main domains.Results: Five elements with intricate bi-directional interactions were identified in the literature reviewed. These included a shared purpose, skilled facilitation and psychological safety, activity integration into organisational procedures, organisational support, and external supportive monitoring. A shared purpose of the managers’ capacity strengthening initiative created commitment and motivation to learn. This purpose was built upon a set of facilitation skills that included promoting participation, self-efficacy and reflection, thereby creating a safe psychological space within which the managers interacted and learnt from each other and their actions. Additionally, an integrated intervention strengthened local capacity and harnessed organisational support for learning. Finally, supportive monitoring from external partners, such as researchers, ensured quality, building of local capacity and professional safety networks essential for continued learning.Conclusions: The five elements identified in this synthesis provide a basis upon which the use of PAR can be harnessed, not only to strengthen health managers’ capacity, but also to foster other health systems strengthening initiatives involving implementation research. In addition, the findings demonstrated the intricate and complex relations between the elements, which further affirms the need for a systems thinking approach to tackling health systems challenges.
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| 9. |
- Tetui, Moses, et al.
(författare)
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Experiences of using a participatory action research approach to strengthen district local capacity in Eastern Uganda
- 2017
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Ingår i: Global Health Action. - Abingdon : Taylor & Francis. - 1654-9716 .- 1654-9880. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: To achieve a sustained improvement in health outcomes, the way health interventions are designed and implemented is critical. A participatory action research approach is applauded for building local capacity such as health management. Thereby increasing the chances of sustaining health interventions.OBJECTIVE: This study explored stakeholder experiences of using PAR to implement an intervention meant to strengthen the local district capacity.METHODS: This was a qualitative study featuring 18 informant interviews and a focus group discussion. Respondents included politicians, administrators, health managers and external researchers in three rural districts of eastern Uganda where PAR was used. Qualitative content analysis was used to explore stakeholders' experiences.RESULTS: 'Being awakened' emerged as an overarching category capturing stakeholder experiences of using PAR. This was described in four interrelated and sequential categories, which included: stakeholder involvement, being invigorated, the risk of wide stakeholder engagement and balancing the risk of wide stakeholder engagement. In terms of involvement, the stakeholders felt engaged, a sense of ownership, felt valued and responsible during the implementation of the project. Being invigorated meant being awakened, inspired and supported. On the other hand, risks such as conflict, stress and uncertainty were reported, and finally these risks were balanced through tolerance, risk-awareness and collaboration.CONCLUSIONS: The PAR approach was desirable because it created opportunities for building local capacity and enhancing continuity of interventions. Stakeholders were awakened by the approach, as it made them more responsive to systems challenges and possible local solutions. Nonetheless, the use of PAR should be considered in full knowledge of the undesirable and complex experiences, such as uncertainty, conflict and stress. This will enable adequate preparation and management of stakeholder expectations to maximize the benefits of the approach.
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| 10. |
- Tetui, Moses, 1983-
(författare)
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Participatory approaches to strengthening district health managers' capacity : Ugandan and global experiences
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Introduction:Residents of low in-come countries have persistently suffered poor health outcomes, modest progress made over time notwithstanding. Weak health systems are one of the key reasons for the less than optimum progress. These health systems are constrained by inadequately equipped managers who play a main role in curbing this progress. Strengthening the capacity of health managers capacity is one of the known ways to improve the performance of health systems. This study examined strategies for strengthening the capacity of health managers at the sub-national level, with a special focus on the Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach.Methods:I used an emergent qualitative design which included both primary data collection and a literature review. Primary data collection techniques included individual interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), participant observations, and a review of project documents and meeting minutes, while searching for peer-reviewed databases was used for the literature review. Several analytical tools were adopted to answer the objectives, including the grounded theory, content and thematic analysis approaches. The Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS) method was used to analyze the literature reviewed.Findings:Stakeholders’ perceived the approaches to strengthening health managers’ capacity as an overarching process comprised of three interconnected subprocesses namely: the professionalizing of health managers, the use of engaging approaches to learning, and the availability of a supportive work environment. PAR as an engaging approach to learning was experienced by stakeholders as a nuanced awakening approach. On the one hand, stakeholders felt engaged, valued, responsible, awakened and a sense of ownership. On the other hand, they felt conflicted, stressed and uncertain. The PAR approach enhanced health managers’ capacity to collaborate with others, be creative, attain goals, and review progress. Expanded spaces for interaction, the encouragement of flexibility, the empowerment of local managers and the promotion of reflection and accountability enabled this enhancement. Lastly, the literature reviewed revealed five interrelated elements for harnessing PAR to strengthen health managers capacity. These were: a shared purpose, skilled facilitation and social psychological safety, activity integration into organizational procedures, organizational support and supportive external monitoring.Conclusions:Health managers have a central role in strengthening health systems; hence the formalization of their role, especially within the public-sector, is needed. In addition, significant investments into developing and strengthening their capacity is required. Strengthening the capacity of health managers is an iterative process that draws synergies from different approaches. The process leans on formal trainings as well as more engaging means of learning, such as PAR. As an engaging approach to learning, PAR expands interaction spaces, provides inclusiveness and flexibility, promotes local ingenuity and shared responsibility, and allows for monitoring and learning. PAR had positive effects on the strengthening of the capacity of health managers while at the same time achieving other project outcomes. Participatory approaches are hence relevant for dealing with the complex challenges bedevilling health systems. The approach nonetheless should be applied with a more nuanced appreciation of the challenges when using it and the elements for harnessing it to strengthen health systems.
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