RESULTS : Significant differences existed in availing of delivery care services among various segments of the population. Women residing in rural areas were less likely than urban women to use the health care services (P<0.001). Both economic and educational status of women were positively associated with use of medical facilities (P<0.001). Christian and Sikh women utilized the reproductive he...

BACKGROUND According to World Health Organization, adolescents are people between 10 and 19 years of age; one-fifth of Ethiopian population constitutes adolescents and four-fifth live in rural areas. Local evidence about adolescents' reproductive health knowledge, services utilization and associated factors are relevant to design age-appropriate program interventions and strategies. Hence, this...

Introduction This is the third in a series of four papers on the use of qualitative methods in family planning and reproductive health care research. The first paper outlined the three main methods used in qualitative studies1 and the second explored how we can assess the ‘quality’ of qualitative research.2 This paper addresses issues related to the analysis of qualitative data. It begins by di...

BACKGROUND Poor utilisation of facility-based antenatal and delivery care services in Kenya hampers reduction of maternal mortality. Studies suggest that the participation of men in antenatal and delivery care is associated with better health care seeking behaviour, yet many reproductive health programs do not facilitate their involvement. This qualitative study conducted in rural Western Kenya...

At the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994, the international community agreed to make reproductive health care universally available no later than 2015. After a 5-year review of progress towards implementation of the Cairo programme of action, that commitment was extended to include sexual, as well as reproductive, health and rights. Although ...

In 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) affirmed that Sexual and Reproductive Health and rights (SRH&R) are human rights. Pursuant to this, several international instruments contributed to global consensus on how reproductive health rights are intrinsically linked to other fundamental human rights. The Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) has fully commi...

Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care 2004: 30(1) The gap between evidence and practice Clinical research continually produces new findings that can contribute to better patient care. However, such research cannot benefit patients unless doctors (and other health care professionals) adopt them in practice. A well-recognised time lag occurs between the emergence of research evi...

Alicia Yamin argues that applying human rights frameworks and approaches to maternal health offers strategies and tools to address the root causes of maternal morbidity and mortality within and beyond health systems, in addition to addressing other violations of women's sexual and reproductive health and rights. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary.

The impact of human rights interventions on health outcomes is complex, multiple, and difficult to ascertain in the conventional sense of cause and effect. Existing approaches based on probable (experimental and statistical) conclusions from evidence are limited in their ability to capture the impact of rights-based transformations in health. This paper argues that a focus on plausible conclusi...

Reproductive health care for internally displaced persons (IDPs) is recognised by the Inter-Agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Refugee Situations and the Reproductive Health Response in Conflict Consortium as a neglected area in humanitarian relief operations. To identify barriers to agencies providing reproductive health care to IDPs, and their strategies for overcoming these barri...