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March 16, 2021

Complementary feeding practices in 80 low- and middle-income countries: prevalence and socioeconomic inequalities in dietary diversity, meal frequency and dietary adequacy

Adequate complementary feeding practices in early childhood contribute to better food preferences and health outcomes throughout the life course. We analyzed the most recent national survey carried out since 2010 in 80 LMIC to describe patterns and socioeconomic inequalities in complementary feeding practices – minimum dietary diversity (MDD), minimum meal frequency (MMF), and minimum acceptable diet (MAD) – among children aged 6-23 months. Between- and within-country inequalit

March 15, 2021

Planning for work: Exploring the relationship between contraceptive use and women?s sector-specific employment in India

India has a unique, sterilization-skewed contraceptive method mix, low and stagnant female labor force participation and widespread gender inequalities. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between contraceptive use and women’s employment (none, professional, clerical or sales, agricultural, services or production) in India using data from India’s 2015–16 National Family Health Survey. More than three-quarters of women in this sample were current contrace

March 09, 2021

A new content-qualified antenatal care coverage indicator: Development and validation of a score using national health surveys in low- and middle-income countries

Good quality antenatal care (ANC) helps reduce adverse maternal and newborn outcomes, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Most of the currently used ANC indicators only measure contact with services. We used data from national surveys conducted in LMICs to create and validate a new ANC indicator, applicable to all women in need of ANC measured as a score, considering ANC contact and content. We selected ANC related variables from national health surveys to build a score.

March 05, 2021

Zero-dose children and the immunisation cascade: understanding immunisation pathways in low and middle-income countries

While the global immunization coverage, estimated as the proportion of world’s children who received all doses of the basic vaccines (BCG, polio, DPT, and measles), has remained stable at 85% since 2010, there were about 13.5 million children under one year of age who did not receive those vaccines in 2018. We explored the magnitude of inequality in the immunization cascade in children aged 12-23 months according to the family’s socioeconomic position, the child’s sex, and p

March 03, 2021

Is womens empowerment associated with coverage of RMNCH interventions in low- and middle-income countries? An analysis using a survey-based empowerment indicator, the SWPER

Women’s empowerment has a strong potential to promote sustainable development. While reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) intervention coverage has substantial variability across social strata, the association with women’s empowerment is less understood. In this study, we used Demographic and Health Survey data from 62 low- and middle-income countries to evaluate the association between women’s empowerment and the Composite Coverage Index (CCI), a weighte

January 11, 2021

Maternal education and equity in breastfeeding: trends and patterns in 81 low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2019

Many countries have experienced increases in rates of exclusive breastfeeding at national level, however, the equity gap by levels of maternal education has not been comprehensively accessed in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). We assessed patterns and trends for six infant and young child feeding indicators (early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding under 6 months, continued breastfeeding at 1 and 2 years, and consumption of formula under 6 and between 6-23 months) by le

January 11, 2021

Monitoring Breastfeeding Indicators in High-Income Countries: Levels, Trends and Challenges

Monitoring indicators of breastfeeding practices is important to protect and evaluate the progress of breastfeeding promotion efforts. However, high-income countries lack standardized methodology to monitor their indicators. Therefore, in this manuscript we aimed to update and summarize nationally representative annual estimates of breastfeeding indicators in high-income countries and to describe methodological issues pertaining to the data sources used. A review was conducted through population

November 24, 2020

Maternal and child health inequalities among migrants: the case of Haiti and the Dominican Republic

One of the most important intraregional migration routes in the Caribbean region is the flow of Haitian migrants to the Dominican Republic. Reasons include political and economic instability, as well as several natural disasters in Haiti. We assessed how migrant status affects coverage and inequalities in maternal and child health interventions by comparing Haitian migrant women and children with Haitians and Dominicans residing in their respective countries. We evaluated coverage using nine ind