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Access to essential technologies for safe childbirth: a survey of health workers in Africa and Asia

BACKGROUND: The reliable availability of health technologies, defined as equipment, medicines, and consumable supplies, is essential to ensure successful childbirth practices proven to prevent avoidable maternal and newborn mortality. The majority of global maternal and newborn deaths take place in...

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Autores principales: Spector, Jonathan M, Reisman, Jonathan, Lipsitz, Stuart, Desai, Priya, Gawande, Atul A
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3637084/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23421767
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2393-13-43
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author Spector, Jonathan M
Reisman, Jonathan
Lipsitz, Stuart
Desai, Priya
Gawande, Atul A
author_facet Spector, Jonathan M
Reisman, Jonathan
Lipsitz, Stuart
Desai, Priya
Gawande, Atul A
author_sort Spector, Jonathan M
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The reliable availability of health technologies, defined as equipment, medicines, and consumable supplies, is essential to ensure successful childbirth practices proven to prevent avoidable maternal and newborn mortality. The majority of global maternal and newborn deaths take place in Africa and Asia, yet few data exist that describe the availability of childbirth-related health technologies in these regions. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of health workers in Africa and Asia in order to profile the availability of health technologies considered to be essential to providing safe childbirth care. METHODS: Health workers in Africa and Asia were surveyed using a web-based questionnaire. A list of essential childbirth-related health technologies was drawn from World Health Organization guidelines for preventing and managing complications associated with the major causes of maternal and newborn mortality globally. Demographic data describing each birth center were obtained and health workers reported on the availability of essential childbirth-related health technologies at their centers. Comparison analyses were conducted using Rao-Scott chi-square test statistics. RESULTS: Health workers from 124 birth centers in 26 African and 15 Asian countries participated. All facilities exhibited gaps in the availability of essential childbirth-related health technologies. Availability was significantly reduced in birth centers that had lower birth volumes and those from lower income countries. On average across all centers, health workers reported the availability of 18 of 23 essential childbirth-related health technologies (79%; 95% CI, 74%, 84%). Low-volume facilities suffered severe shortages; on average, these centers reported reliable availability of 13 of 23 technologies (55%; 95% CI, 39%, 71%). CONCLUSIONS: Substantial gaps exist in the availability of essential childbirth-related health technologies across health sector levels in Africa and Asia. Strategies that facilitate reliable access to vital health technologies in these regions are an urgent priority.
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spelling pubmed-36370842013-04-27 Access to essential technologies for safe childbirth: a survey of health workers in Africa and Asia Spector, Jonathan M Reisman, Jonathan Lipsitz, Stuart Desai, Priya Gawande, Atul A BMC Pregnancy Childbirth Research Article BACKGROUND: The reliable availability of health technologies, defined as equipment, medicines, and consumable supplies, is essential to ensure successful childbirth practices proven to prevent avoidable maternal and newborn mortality. The majority of global maternal and newborn deaths take place in Africa and Asia, yet few data exist that describe the availability of childbirth-related health technologies in these regions. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of health workers in Africa and Asia in order to profile the availability of health technologies considered to be essential to providing safe childbirth care. METHODS: Health workers in Africa and Asia were surveyed using a web-based questionnaire. A list of essential childbirth-related health technologies was drawn from World Health Organization guidelines for preventing and managing complications associated with the major causes of maternal and newborn mortality globally. Demographic data describing each birth center were obtained and health workers reported on the availability of essential childbirth-related health technologies at their centers. Comparison analyses were conducted using Rao-Scott chi-square test statistics. RESULTS: Health workers from 124 birth centers in 26 African and 15 Asian countries participated. All facilities exhibited gaps in the availability of essential childbirth-related health technologies. Availability was significantly reduced in birth centers that had lower birth volumes and those from lower income countries. On average across all centers, health workers reported the availability of 18 of 23 essential childbirth-related health technologies (79%; 95% CI, 74%, 84%). Low-volume facilities suffered severe shortages; on average, these centers reported reliable availability of 13 of 23 technologies (55%; 95% CI, 39%, 71%). CONCLUSIONS: Substantial gaps exist in the availability of essential childbirth-related health technologies across health sector levels in Africa and Asia. Strategies that facilitate reliable access to vital health technologies in these regions are an urgent priority. BioMed Central 2013-02-20 /pmc/articles/PMC3637084/ /pubmed/23421767 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2393-13-43 Text en Copyright © 2013 Spector et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Spector, Jonathan M
Reisman, Jonathan
Lipsitz, Stuart
Desai, Priya
Gawande, Atul A
Access to essential technologies for safe childbirth: a survey of health workers in Africa and Asia
title Access to essential technologies for safe childbirth: a survey of health workers in Africa and Asia
title_full Access to essential technologies for safe childbirth: a survey of health workers in Africa and Asia
title_fullStr Access to essential technologies for safe childbirth: a survey of health workers in Africa and Asia
title_full_unstemmed Access to essential technologies for safe childbirth: a survey of health workers in Africa and Asia
title_short Access to essential technologies for safe childbirth: a survey of health workers in Africa and Asia
title_sort access to essential technologies for safe childbirth: a survey of health workers in africa and asia
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3637084/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23421767
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2393-13-43
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