The association of health workforce capacity and quality of pediatric care in Afghanistan.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between workforce capacity and quality of pediatric care in outpatient clinics in Afghanistan. DESIGN: Annual national performance assessments were conducted between 2005 and 2008 to determine quality of care through patient observations in >600 health facilities, selected by stratified random sampling each year. Other variables measured were health provider capacity, competency and adequacy of support systems. SETTING: Primary care facilities in 29 provinces in Afghanistan. PARTICIPANTS: Pediatric patients and their caretakers greater than 2400 were selected at random each year. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Index of observed quality of care for patient assessment and counseling based on WHO's Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) clinical guidelines. RESULTS: Quality of care improved for all IMCI indices between 2005 and 2008 (IMCI index increased from 43.1 to 56.1; P < 0.001) and was significantly associated with the availability of doctors, IMCI training and knowledge and factors such as provider job satisfaction, availability of clinical guidelines, frequency of supervision and the presence of community councils. There was also a progressive increase in the index summarizing staffing capacity during the study period. Basic health centers increased from 75.6 to 85.5% (P < 0.001), comprehensive health centers increased from 27.9 to 37.9% (P < 0.03) and district hospitals increased from 34.1 to 37.2% (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Enhancing workforce capacity and competency and ensuring appropriate supervision and systems support mechanisms can contribute to improved quality of care. Although the results indicate sustained improvements over the study period, further research on the mixture of provider skills, competency and factors influencing provider motivation are essential to determine the optimal workforce capacity in Afghanistan.

Infant and under-five mortality in Afghanistan: current estimates and limitations.

OBJECTIVE: To examine historical estimates of infant and under-five mortality in Afghanistan, provide estimates for rural areas from current population-based data, and discuss the methodological challenges that undermine data quality and hinder retrospective estimations of mortality. METHODS: Indirect methods of estimation were used to calculate infant and under-five mortality from a household survey conducted in 2006. Sex-specific differences in underreporting of births and deaths were examined and sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess the effect of underreporting on infant and under-five mortality. FINDINGS: For 2004, rural unadjusted infant and under-five mortality rates were estimated to be 129 and 191 deaths per 1000 live births, respectively, with some evidence indicating underreporting of female deaths. If adjustment for underreporting is made (i.e. by assuming 50% of the unreported girls are dead), mortality estimates go up to 140 and 209, respectively. CONCLUSION: Commonly used estimates of infant and under-five mortality in Afghanistan are outdated; they do not reflect changes that have occurred in the past 15 years or recent intensive investments in health services development, such as the implementation of the Basic Package of Health Services. The sociocultural aspects of mortality and their effect on the reporting of births and deaths in Afghanistan need to be investigated further.

Determinants of primary care service quality in Afghanistan.

OBJECTIVE: To identify factors associated with service quality provided by agencies implementing a basic package of health services in Afghanistan. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of outpatient health facilities, health workers, patients and caretakers. SETTING: Primary health care facilities in every province of Afghanistan. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Composite scale measuring the quality of clinical processes in four areas: patient histories, physical examinations, communication and time spent with patient. RESULTS: No difference in service quality was observed between male and female providers or between male and female patients, but when both the provider and patient were female quality was much higher. Overall, the quality of care at non-governmental organization and government-managed health facilities did not differ, but the poor received higher quality care at non-governmental facilities than at government facilities. Doctors provided higher quality care than lower level providers. Provision of six or more supervisory visits in the last 6 months was associated with higher service quality. Training doctors in integrated management of childhood illness was not associated with quality, but when lower level health workers received such training the quality of patient-provider communication was higher. Other recurrent inputs and geographic remoteness are not associated with the quality of care provided. CONCLUSIONS: The government's strategy to form partnerships with non-governmental organizations has led to higher quality of care provided to the poor. This represents a promising start in the reconstruction of Afghanistan's health system and provides useful evidence to other countries striving to increase access to quality care for the poor.

Measuring and managing progress in the establishment of basic health services: the Afghanistan health sector balanced scorecard.

The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) of Afghanistan has adopted the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) as a tool to measure and manage performance in delivery of a Basic Package of Health Services. Based on results from the 2004 baseline round, the MOPH identified eight of the 29 indicators on the BSC as priority areas for improvement. Like the 2004 round, the 2005 and 2006 BSCs involved a random selection of more than 600 health facilities, 1700 health workers and 5800 patient-provider interactions. The 2005 and 2006 BSCs demonstrated substantial improvements in all eight of the priority areas compared to 2004 baseline levels, with increases in median provincial scores for presence of active village health councils, availability of essential drugs, functional laboratories, provider knowledge, health worker training, use of clinical guidelines, monitoring of tuberculosis treatment, and provision of delivery care. For three of the priority indicators-drug availability, health worker training and provider knowledge-scores remained unchanged or decreased between 2005 and 2006. This highlights the need to ensure that early gains achieved in establishment of health services in Afghanistan are maintained over time. The use of a coherent and balanced monitoring framework to identify priority areas for improvement and measure performance over time reflects an objectives-based approach to management of health services that is proving to be effective in a difficult environment.