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- Byass, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Beyond 2015 : time to reposition Scandinavia in global health?
- 2013
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Ingår i: Global Health Action. - Järfälla, Sweden : CoAction Publishing. - 1654-9716 .- 1654-9880. ; 6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Global health currently finds itself in an exciting, almost bewildering, state of flux. A plethora of initiatives, statements, high-level meetings, and other activities are generating a continuous flow of new ideas, with the impetus at least partly driven by the advent of the 2015 target date set for the Millennium Development Goals that were adopted in 2000. Whatever shape the post-2015 global health landscape may eventually take, it is already clear that there will be new targets of some kind as the world tries to make further progress on some of the less tractable health issues.
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- Friberg, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Public and global engagement with global health
- 2013
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Ingår i: The Lancet. - : Elsevier. - 0140-6736 .- 1474-547X. ; 381:9883, s. 2066-2066
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Global health is widely regarded as being grounded in public and global engagement. But much of the process of global health is dominated by Northern institutions, expert groups, think-tanks, high-level meetings, and the like. Indeed, the exponential growth of global health in the past decade may soon turn into terminal decline unless truly global and broad-based ownership of the concept can be achieved.
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- Streatfield, P Kim, et al.
(författare)
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Mortality from external causes in Africa and Asia : evidence from INDEPTH Health and Demographic Surveillance System Sites
- 2014
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Ingår i: Global Health Action. - : CoAction Publishing. - 1654-9716 .- 1654-9880. ; 7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Mortality from external causes, of all kinds, is an important component of overall mortality on a global basis. However, these deaths, like others in Africa and Asia, are often not counted or documented on an individual basis. Overviews of the state of external cause mortality in Africa and Asia are therefore based on uncertain information. The INDEPTH Network maintains longitudinal surveillance, including cause of death, at population sites across Africa and Asia, which offers important opportunities to document external cause mortality at the population level across a range of settings.OBJECTIVE: To describe patterns of mortality from external causes at INDEPTH Network sites across Africa and Asia, according to the WHO 2012 verbal autopsy (VA) cause categories.DESIGN: All deaths at INDEPTH sites are routinely registered and followed up with VA interviews. For this study, VA archives were transformed into the WHO 2012 VA standard format and processed using the InterVA-4 model to assign cause of death. Routine surveillance data also provide person-time denominators for mortality rates.RESULTS: A total of 5,884 deaths due to external causes were documented over 11,828,253 person-years. Approximately one-quarter of those deaths were to children younger than 15 years. Causes of death were dominated by childhood drowning in Bangladesh, and by transport-related deaths and intentional injuries elsewhere. Detailed mortality rates are presented by cause of death, age group, and sex.CONCLUSIONS: The patterns of external cause mortality found here generally corresponded with expectations and other sources of information, but they fill some important gaps in population-based mortality data. They provide an important source of information to inform potentially preventive intervention designs.
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- Vergnano, Stefania, et al.
(författare)
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Adaptation of a probabilistic method (InterVA) of verbal autopsy to improve the interpretation of cause of stillbirth and neonatal death in Malawi, Nepal, and Zimbabwe.
- 2011
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Ingår i: Population Health Metrics. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1478-7954. ; 9, s. 48-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundVerbal autopsy (VA) is a widely used method for analyzing cause of death in absence of vital registration systems. We adapted the InterVA method to extrapolate causes of death for stillbirths and neonatal deaths from verbal autopsy questionnaires, using data from Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Nepal.MethodsWe obtained 734 stillbirth and neonatal VAs from recent community studies in rural areas: 169 from Malawi, 385 from Nepal, and 180 from Zimbabwe. Initial refinement of the InterVA model was based on 100 physician-reviewed VAs from Malawi. InterVA indicators and matrix probabilities for cause of death were reviewed for clinical and epidemiological coherence by a pediatrician-researcher and an epidemiologist involved in the development of InterVA. The modified InterVA model was evaluated by comparing population-level cause-specific mortality fractions and individual agreement from two methods of interpretation (physician review and InterVA) for a further 69 VAs from Malawi, 385 from Nepal, and 180 from Zimbabwe.ResultsCase-by-case agreement between InterVA and reviewing physician diagnoses for 69 cases from Malawi, 180 cases from Zimbabwe, and 385 cases from Nepal were 83% (kappa 0.76 (0.75 - 0.80)), 71% (kappa 0.41(0.32-0.51)), and 74% (kappa 0.63 (0.60-0.63)), respectively. The proportion of stillbirths identified as fresh or macerated by the different methods of VA interpretation was similar in all three settings. Comparing across countries, the modified InterVA method found that proportions of preterm births and deaths due to infection were higher in Zimbabwe (44%) than in Malawi (28%) or Nepal (20%).ConclusionThe modified InterVA method provides plausible results for stillbirths and newborn deaths, broadly comparable to physician review but with the advantage of internal consistency. The method allows standardized cross-country comparisons and eliminates the inconsistencies of physician review in such comparisons.
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- Bird, J., et al.
(författare)
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A matter of life and death : practical and ethical constraints in the development of a mobile verbal autopsy tool
- 2013
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Ingår i: CHI '13 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsPages 1489-1498. - New York, NY, USA : ACM. - 9781450318990 ; , s. 1489-1498
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Verbal autopsy (VA) involves interviewing relatives of the deceased to identify the probable cause of death and is typically used in settings where there is no official system for recording deaths or their causes. Following the interview, physician assessment to determine probable cause can take several years to complete. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes that there is a pressing need for a mobile device that combines direct data capture and analysis if this technique is to become part of routine health surveillance. We conducted a field test in rural South Africa to evaluate a mobile system that we designed to meet WHO requirements (namely, simplicity, feasibility, adaptability to local contexts, cost-effectiveness and program relevance). If desired, this system can provide immediate feedback to respondents about the probable cause of death at the end of a VA interview. We assessed the ethical implications of this technological development by interviewing all the stakeholders in the VA process (respondents, fieldworkers, physicians, population scientists, data managers and community engagement managers) and highlight the issues that this community needs to debate and resolve.
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- Byass, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing a population's exposure to heat and humidity : an empirical approach
- 2010
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Ingår i: Global Health Action. - : CoAction Publishing. - 1654-9716 .- 1654-9880. ; 3, s. Article nr 5421-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: It is widely accepted that assessing the impact of heat on populations is an important aspect of climate change research. However, this raises questions about how best to measure people’s exposure to heat under everyday living conditions in more detail than is possible by relying on nearby sources of meteorological data. Objective: This study aimed to investigate practical and viable approaches to measuring air temperature and humidity within a population, making comparisons with contemporaneous external data sources. This was done in a rural South African population during the subtropical summer season. Results: Air temperature and humidity were measured indoors and outdoors at three locations over 10 days and the datalogger technology proved reliable and easy to use. There was little variation in measurements over distances of 10 km. Conclusions: Small battery-powered automatic dataloggers proved to be a feasible option for collecting weather data among a rural South African population. These data were consistent with external sources but offered more local detail. Detailed local contemporary data may also allow post hoc modelling of previously unmeasured local weather data in conjunction with global gridded climate models.
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- Byass, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Essential evidence for guiding health system priorities and policies : anticipating epidemiological transition in Africa
- 2014
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Ingår i: Global Health Action. - : CoAction Publishing. - 1654-9716 .- 1654-9880. ; 7, s. 158-168
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Despite indications that infection-related mortality in sub-Saharan Africa may be decreasing and the burden of non-communicable diseases increasing, the overwhelming reality is that health information systems across most of sub-Saharan Africa remain too weak to track epidemiological transition in a meaningful and effective way.PROPOSALS: We propose a minimum dataset as the basis of a functional health information system in countries where health information is lacking. This would involve continuous monitoring of cause-specific mortality through routine civil registration, regular documentation of exposure to leading risk factors, and monitoring effective coverage of key preventive and curative interventions in the health sector. Consideration must be given as to how these minimum data requirements can be effectively integrated within national health information systems, what methods and tools are needed, and ensuring that ethical and political issues are addressed. A more strategic approach to health information systems in sub-Saharan African countries, along these lines, is essential if epidemiological changes are to be tracked effectively for the benefit of local health planners and policy makers.CONCLUSION: African countries have a unique opportunity to capitalize on modern information and communications technology in order to achieve this. Methodological standards need to be established and political momentum fostered so that the African continent's health status can be reliably tracked. This will greatly strengthen the evidence base for health policies and facilitate the effective delivery of services.
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