Effectiveness of conditional cash transfers for uptake and retention in HIV prevention of mother-to-child transmission services in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review protocol.

OBJECTIVE: This systematic review will identify and synthesize evidence on the effectiveness of conditional cash transfers for the uptake and retention in prevention of mother-to-child transmission services in pregnant and/or breastfeeding women with HIV infection in low- and middle-income countries. INTRODUCTION: Regardless of the effectiveness of prevention of mother-to-child transmission services, uptake and retention in such services remains poor in low- and middle-income countries. This review intends to evaluate the effectiveness of conditional cash transfers in improving uptake and retention in such services for pregnant and/or breastfeeding women with HIV infection. INCLUSION CRITERIA: This review will consider studies that evaluate the impact of conditional cash transfers on uptake and retention in prevention of mother-to-child transmission services in pregnant and/or breastfeeding women with HIV. Studies will compare conditional cash transfers with no intervention or other interventions. Only studies carried out in low- and middle-income countries will be eligible for inclusion. METHODS: Eight databases will be searched. Publication status will not be considered as a criterion for inclusion. Studies published in English since 2000 will be considered, because prevention of mother-to-child transmission services were first introduced in that year. Following the search, two independent reviewers will screen titles and abstracts against the inclusion criteria, critically appraise eligible studies for methodological quality using JBI critical appraisal tools, and extract data from included studies using a standardized data extraction tool. Where possible, quantitative data will be pooled using statistical meta-analysis. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPERO CRD42021236729.

Minimum dietary diversity and associated factors among children aged 6-23 months in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Dietary diversity has long been recognized as a key element of high quality diets. Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) is the consumption of four or more food groups from the seven food groups. Globally, only few children are receiving nutritionally adequate and diversified foods. More than two-thirds of malnutrition related child deaths are associated with inappropriate feeding practice during the first two years of life. In Ethiopia, only 7 % of children age 6-23 months had received the minimum acceptable diet. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to determine the level of minimum dietary diversity practice and identify the associated factors among children aged 6-23 months in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. METHODS: A health facility based cross sectional study was undertaken in the three sub-cities of Addis Ababa from 26th February to 28th April, 2016. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to sample the 352 study participants or mothers who had children aged 6-23 months. Data were collected by using a structured and pretested questionnaire, cleaned and entered into Epi info 7 and analyzed using SPSS 24 software. Logistic regression was fitted and odds ratio with 95% confidence interval (CI) with p-value less than 0.05 was used to identify factors associated with minimum dietary diversity. RESULT: In this study, the overall children with minimum dietary diversity score were found to be 59.9%. Mother's educational attainment and a higher household monthly income were positively associated with the minimum dietary diversity practice. Similarly, mothers' knowledge on dietary diversity and child feeding was positively associated with minimum dietary diversity child feeding practice, with an adjusted odds ratio of 1.98 (95% CI: 1.11-3.53). CONCLUSION: In this study, the consumption of minimum dietary diversity was found to be high. In spite of this, more efforts need to be done to achieve the recommended minimum dietary diversity intake for all children aged between 6 and 23 months.