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<b>Objectives</b><BR> The objective of the study was to analyze the effects of home-based records on pregnancy, delivery, and child health care in Indonesia.<BR><b>Methods </b><BR> The data were obtained from women who had children under 5 years old at the time of the collection of the 2002, 2007, and 2012 Indonesia Demographic and Health Surveys. The study divided women into two groups: those who used the Maternal and Child Health Handbook (MCHHB) or antenatal card (AC) as a home-based records group, and those who did not use MCHHB or AC as the control group. We calculated the adjusted odds ratios and expressed the effects using meta-analysis methods. <BR><b>Results</b><BR> The study revealed that, compared with the control group, the home-based records group had more knowledge and better practices during pregnancy, delivery, and child health care (e.g., immunization). The home-based records group knew how to solve the problems of complications during pregnancy and used skilled birth attendants for delivery. This study also found that husbands in the home-based records group were involved in discussing the delivery location, finding transportation, and identifying a blood donor. <BR><b>Conclusions</b><BR> This study showed that home-based records had strong associations with the knowledge and practices of women regarding pregnancy, delivery, and child health care.
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<B>Introduction</B><BR>Recently, an increasing number of registered foreigners get married and bear children in Japan. At the same time, a variety of needs for maternal and child health (MCH) impose burden for medical practitioners. A questionnaire survey was conducted to clarify the situation of MCH service for foreign residents.<BR><B>Method</B><BR>Self-report questionnaires developed by “The study group for MCH in a multiethnic and multicultural society” were sent by mail to the pediatricians registered in the Gunma medical association or Gunma pediatric association. In total, target number was 299. The survey period was between 2003/10/6-11/3.<BR><B>Result</B><BR>The number of valid response was 167. Out of 167, 155 doctors replied to have experience of caring foreigners. 75% of them had the experience of trouble in communication. For the question of the need of translator, 76.8% of doctors answered “absolutely necessary” or “necessary if the quality of translation is high enough”. Desired competencies for translators were “Accurate translation of diagnosis, hands on of treatment strategy” or “To help taking detailed patient's history”.<BR>For the experience of using MCH handbook in foreign languages, 52.9% of doctors answered “Never used it”.<BR><B>Discussion</B><BR>We found that the majority of doctors had difficulty in communicating with foreigners.<BR>To meet the doctors' requirement for the competency of translator, two strategies should be considered. One is to develop professional medical translator through education of basic medical knowledge or Japan's health care system. The other is to train foreigners already engaging in translation.<BR>For communication tools development, user friendly concept should be reflected including 1) adscript of foreign and Japanese languages, 2) illustration usage and 3) eye-friendly materials for elderly. Contents should have explanations including 1) diagnosis and treatment policy for common disease, 2) ways of coping with common symptoms, and 3) the information of a variety of Japan's welfare services.
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<b>Introduction</b><br>In the Caribbean country of the Dominican Republic, specifically in the northwestern Province of Dajabón bordering Haiti, a Maternal and Child Health (MCH) handbook, “History of My Health” was introduced through the technical cooperation of the Inter-American Development Bank's Japan Program with the leadership of the Provincial Office of the Secretary of Health. This report describes the implementation process and results, examines the project's sustainability and replicablility, and shares good practices and lessons learned.<br><b>Activities</b><br>The implementation of the project can be divided into three phases: first, development of a Dominican version of MCH handbook, local awareness raising, capacity building of health personnel, and the establishment of monitoring system were areas of high priority; the second phase centered around the improvement of MCH handbook with participatory approach and the continuation of the capacity building of health personnel; and the last phase focused on the sustainability through local management-precisely securing recurrent costs of the project.<br><b>Results</b><br>The evaluation and regular monitoring visits revealed positive results: as for pregnant women, the handbooks were well accepted for their friendliness, simplicity, durability and mobility, and the rate of their receiving antenatal and postpartum cares at designated clinics or hospitals increased; as for newborns and children, the immunization coverage improved while common problems such as diarrhea decreased; and as for health personnel, the handbook helped clarify the division of work and enhanced their sense of responsibility, communication, and continuity and integration of service. Currently, 359 trained health personnel use MCH handbook in all of the 22 health establishments in the Province, covering around 98% of the target population.<br><b>Conclusions</b><br>To achieve self-sustainability, this pilot project suggests that the use of MCH handbook needs to be institutionalized through the bottom-up approach and to integrate into the existing rural and national health care system through the top-down approach.
ABSTRACT
In Thailand, the maternal and child health (MCH) handbook has been used for nearly two decades in one of the MCH activities. A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the utilization of the MCH handbook, and to analyze the relation to mother's MCH promoting belief and action. The data was collected from 224 mothers at one district in Kanchanburi province, Thailand, from January to February in 2005. About the utilization of the MCH handbook by mothers, there was a low rate of reading (14.3% mother had read all of the contents) and self-recording (0.9% mother had recorded every part). Multiple regression coefficients showed utilization of the MCH handbook was related to both mother's MCH promoting belief (p=0.001) and action (p=0.039). This was the strongest predictor variable of mother's MCH promoting belief. Other factors which significantly related to MCH promoting belief were family income, age, and education, and relation to action were marital status, occupation and age. According to the findings of this study, for MCH promotion, mothers' belief and action can be inspired through utilizing the MCH handbook and comprehensive assessment.