Determining the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Availability, Use, and Readiness of Family Planning and Contraceptive Services at Selected Primary Health Care Facilities in Africa and Asia: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated social restrictions may have disrupted the provision of essential services, including family planning (FP) and contraceptive services. This protocol is adapted from a generic study protocol titled "Health systems analysis and evaluations of the barriers to availability and readiness of sexual and reproductive health services in COVID-19 affected areas," conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) Department of Reproductive Health and Research. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to assess the availability and use of FP and contraceptive services in primary health facilities during and after the COVID-19 pandemic; assess the risk perceptions of COVID-19 stigma, barriers to access, and quality of services from clients' and providers' perspectives in the COVID-19-affected areas; and assess the postpandemic recovery of the facilities in the provision of FP and contraceptive services. METHODS: In-depth interviews will be conducted with clients-women in the reproductive age group and their male partners who visit the selected health facilities for FP and contraceptive services-and health providers (the most knowledgeable person on FP and contraceptive service provision) at the selected health facilities. Focus group discussions will be conducted with clients at the selected health facilities and in the community. The in-depth interviews and focus group discussions will help to understand clients' and health service providers' perspectives of FP and contraceptive service availability and readiness in COVID-19-affected areas. A cross-sectional health facility assessment will be conducted in all the selected health facilities to determine the health facility infrastructure's ability and readiness to provide FP and contraceptive services and to capture the trends in FP and contraceptive services available during the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientific approval for this study is obtained from the WHO Research Project Review Panel, and the WHO Ethics Review Committee has given ethical approval in the 3 countries. RESULTS: Using a standardized research protocol will ensure that the results from this study can be compared across regions and countries. The study was funded in March 2021. It received ethics approval from the WHO Ethics Review Committee in February 2022. We completed data collection in September 2022. We plan to complete the data analysis by March 2023. We plan to publish the study results by Summer 2023. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this study will provide a better understanding of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on FP and contraceptive services at the facility level, which will help policy makers and health managers develop and strengthen FP policies and services in health facilities to be more responsive to community needs. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/43329.

Stocking up and stocking out: Food retail stock-outs, consumer demand, and prices during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020

Monitoring food retail stock-outs or the unplanned unavailability of certain food items for purchase assists policymakers in responding to food supply chain disruptions. This study focuses on identifying food stock-outs using store-level scanner data on US grocery store sales during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The total median stock-out rates of fixed-weight items increased by approximately 130% after March 15, 2020. Categories such as meat and poultry products, some convenience and frozen foods, baby formula, and carbonated beverages had the highest stock-out rates. The analysis also explores the relationship between stock-out rates, sales increases, and food prices during the pandemic. Published 2023. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Assessment of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia health commodities' supply chains in selected hospitals of Lagos State during COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose: Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia (PE/E) are rising in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria. This study aims to evaluate the availability and logistics management of sixteen items from the Nigerian essential medicine list required for managing these conditions. Design/Methodology/approach: A cross-sectional study in 50 health-care facilities in Lagos State, Nigeria, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic by interviewing the facility's main person in charge of health commodities. Data were recorded during the visit and in the previous six months using the adapted Logistics Indicators Assessment Tool (LIAT). In addition, descriptive analysis was conducted based on the World Health Organization availability index. Findings: The availability of 13 (81%) of the commodities were high, and 3 (19%) were relatively high in the facilities, stock out rate during the visitation and previous six months varied with the commodities: urinalysis strip (22%) and (40%), hydralazine (20%) and (20%), labetalol injection (8%) and (20%), labetalol tablet (24%) and (24%) and sphygmomanometer (8%) and (8%). No stock out was recorded for 11 (69%) commodities. All the facilities observed 9 (75%) out of the 12 storage guidelines, and 36 (72%) had a perfect storage condition score. Limitations/Implications: Current state of PE/E health commodities in the selected facilities is highlighted, and the strengths and weaknesses of the supply chain in these health facilities were identified and discussed. Originality/value: These commodities' availability ranged from reasonably high to very high. Regular supportive supervision is germane to strengthening the logistics management system for these commodities to prevent the negative impact on the health and well-being of the people during the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic. © 2023, Adesola Olalekan, Victor Igweike, Oloruntoba Ekun, Abosede Adegbite and Olayinka Ogunleye.

Safety-Stock: Predicting the demand for supplies in Brazilian hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many challenges lie ahead when dealing with COVID-19, not only related to the acceleration of the pandemic, but also to the prediction of personal protective equipment sets consumption to accommodate the explosive demand. Due to this situation of uncertainty, hospital administration encourages the excess stock of these materials, over-stocking products in some hospitals, and provoking shortages in others. The number of available personal protective equipment sets is one of the three main factors that limit the number of patients at a hospital, as well as the number of available beds and the number of professionals per shift. In this scenario, we developed an easy-to-use expert system to predict the demand for personal protective equipment sets in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be updated in real-time for short term planning. For this system, we propose a naive statistical modeling which combines historical data of the consumption of personal protective equipment sets by hospitals, current protocols for their uses and epidemiological data related to the disease, to build predictive models for the demand for personal protective equipment in Brazilian hospitals during the pandemic. We then embed this modeling in the free Safety-Stock system, which provides useful information for the hospital, especially the safety-stock level and the prediction of consumption/demand for each personal protective equipment set over time. Considering our predictions, a hospital may have its needs related to specific personal protective equipment sets estimated, taking into account its historical stock levels and possible scheduled purchases. The tool allows for adopting strategies to control and keep the stock at safety levels to the demand, mitigating the risk of stock-out. As a direct consequence, it also enables the interchange and cooperation between hospitals, aiming to maximize the availability of equipment during the pandemic.