Improving quality of non-communicable disease services at primary care facilities in middle-income countries: A scoping review.

Health systems in middle-income countries face important challenges in managing the high burden of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD). Primary health care is widely recognized as key to managing NCDs in communities. However, the effectiveness of this approach is limited by poor quality of care (QoC), among others. This scoping review identifies the types of interventions that have been used in middle-income countries to improve the quality of NCD services at primary care facilities. Further, it identifies the range of outcomes these quality interventions have influenced. This scoping review covered both the grey and peer-reviewed literature. The 149 articles reviewed were classified into four domains - governance, service-delivery systems, health workforce, and patients and communities. There was a remarkable unevenness in the geographic distribution of studies - lower middle-income countries and some regions (Middle East, North Africa, and South East Asia) had a scarcity of published studies. NCDs such as stroke and cardiovascular disease, mental health, cancer, and respiratory disorders received less attention. The thrust of quality interventions was directed at the practice of NCD care by clinicians, facilities, or patients. Few studies provided evidence from interventions at the organizations or policy levels. Overall, effectiveness of quality interventions was mixed across domains. In general, positive or mixed effects on provider clinical skills and behavior, as well as, improvements in patient outcomes were found across interventions. Access to care and coverage of screening services were positively influenced by the interventions reviewed. This review shows that quality improvement interventions tried in middle-income countries mostly focused at the provider and facility level, with few focusing on the organizational and policy level. There is a need to further study the effectiveness of organizational and policy level interventions on the practice and outcomes of NCD care.

Exit strategies from lockdowns due to COVID-19: a scoping review.

INTRODUCTION: In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, countries have adopted various degrees of restrictive measures on people to reduce COVID-19 transmission. These measures have had significant social and economic costs. In the absence of therapeutics, and low vaccination coverage, strategies for a safe exit plan from a lockdown are required to mitigate the transmission and simultaneously re-open societies. Most countries have outlined or have implemented lockdown exit plans. The objective of this scoping review is to (a) identify and map the different strategies for exit from lockdowns, (b) document the effects of these exit strategies, and (c) discuss features of successful exit strategies based on the evidence. METHODS: A five-step approach was used in this scoping review: (a) identifying the research question and inclusion/exclusion criteria; (b) searching the literature using keywords within PubMed and WHO databases; (c) study selection; (d) data extraction; (e) collating results and qualitative synthesis of findings. RESULTS: Of the 406 unique studies found, 107 were kept for full-text review. Studies suggest the post-peak period as optimal timing for an exit, supplemented by other triggers such as sufficient health system capacity, and increased testing rate. A controlled and step-wise exit plan which is flexible and guided by information from surveillance systems is optimal. Studies recommend continued use of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as physical distancing, use of facemasks, and hygiene measures, in different combinations when exiting from a lockdown, even after optimal vaccination coverage has been attained. CONCLUSION: Reviewed studies have suggested adopting a multi-pronged strategy consisting of different approaches depending on the context. Among the different exit strategies reviewed (phase-wise exit, hard exit, and constant cyclic patterns of lockdown), phase-wise exit appears to be the optimal exit strategy.

Community interventions with women's groups to improve women's and children's health in India: a mixed-methods systematic review of effects, enablers and barriers.

INTRODUCTION: India is home to over 6 million women's groups, including self-help groups. There has been no evidence synthesis on whether and how such groups improve women's and children's health. METHODS: We did a mixed-methods systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies on women's groups in India to examine effects on women and children's health and to identify enablers and barriers to achieving outcomes. We searched 10 databases and included studies published in English from 2000 to 2019 measuring health knowledge, behaviours or outcomes. Our study population included adult women and children under 5 years. We appraised studies using standard risk of bias assessments. We compared intervention effects by level of community participation, scope of capability strengthening (individual, group or community), type of women's group and social and behaviour change techniques employed. We synthesised quantitative and qualitative studies to identify barriers and enablers related to context, intervention design and implementation, and outcome characteristics. FINDINGS: We screened 21 380 studies and included 99: 19 randomised controlled trial reports, 25 quasi-experimental study reports and 55 non-experimental studies (27 quantitative and 28 qualitative). Experimental studies provided moderate-quality evidence that health interventions with women's groups can improve perinatal practices, neonatal survival, immunisation rates and women's and children's dietary diversity, and help control vector-borne diseases. Evidence of positive effects was strongest for community mobilisation interventions that built communities' capabilities and went beyond sharing information. Key enablers were inclusion of vulnerable community members, outcomes that could be reasonably expected to change through community interventions and intensity proportionate to ambition. Barriers included limited time or focus on health, outcomes not relevant to group members and health system constraints. CONCLUSION: Interventions with women's groups can improve women's and children's health in India. The most effective interventions go beyond using groups to disseminate health information and seek to build communities' capabilities. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: The review was registered with PROSPERO: CRD42019130633.

The impact of a nurse mentoring program on the quality of labour and delivery care at primary health care facilities in Bihar, India.

INTRODUCTION: Although the number of women who deliver with a skilled birth attendant in India has almost doubled between 2006 and 2016, the country still has the second highest number of maternal deaths and the highest number of neonatal deaths globally. This study examines the impact of a nurse mentoring programme intended to improve the quality of intrapartum care at primary healthcare centre (PHC) facilities in Bihar, India. METHOD: We conducted an evaluation study in 319 public PHCs in Bihar, where nurses participated in a mentoring programme. Using a quasi-experimental trial design, we compared the intrapartum quality of care between the mentored (n=179) and non-mentored PHCs (n=80). Based on direct observation of 847 women, we examined percent differences in 39 labour, delivery and postpartum care-related recommended tasks on five domains: vital sign and labour progress monitoring after admission, second and third stages of labour management, postpartum counselling, infection prevention and essential newborn care practices. RESULTS: A significantly higher proportion of women at mentored PHCs received the recommended clinical care, compared with women at non-mentored PHCs. The overall total score of quality of care, expressed in percent of tasks performed, was 30.2% (95% CI: 28.3 to 32.2) in the control PHCs, suggesting that less than one-third of the expected tasks during labour and delivery were performed by nurses in these facilities; the score was 44.2% (95% CI: 42.1 to 46.4) among the facilities where the nurses were trained within last 3 months. The task completion score was slightly attenuated when observed 1 year after mentoring (score 39.1% [37.7-40.5]). CONCLUSION: Mentoring improved intrapartum care by nurses at PHCs in Bihar. However, less than half of the recommended normal delivery intrapartum tasks were completed by the nurse providers. This suggests the need for further improvement in the provision of quality of intrapartum care when risks to maternal and perinatal mortality are highest.