Background A new cadre of village-based frontline health workers, called Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), was created in India. However, coverage of selected community-based maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) services remains low. Objective This article describes the process of development and formative evaluation of a complex mHealth intervention (ImTeCHO) to increase the cov...

Paediatricians have always played a leading part in ensuring that local child health services are of the best possible quality and are most suited to the needs of the local population. Three important dimensions of the quality of health services are that they should be effective and that they should be delivered efficiently and equitably. 2 These three dimensions apply to the child health servi...

OBJECTIVES Effective coverage (EC) is a measure of health systems' performance that combines need, use and quality indicators. This study aimed to assess the extent to which the Kenyan health system provides effective and equitable maternal and child health services, as a means of tracking the country's progress towards universal health coverage. METHODS AND RESULTS The Demographic Health Sur...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the extent to which a program of home visitation (Early Start), targeted at families who are facing stress and difficulty, had beneficial consequences for child health, preschool education, service utilization, parenting, child abuse and neglect, and behavioral adjustment. METHODS The study used a randomized, controlled trial design in which 220 families who were partici...

Background All parents in Sweden are invited to child health service (CHS) parental groups, however only 49% of the families participate. The way the parental groups are managed has been shown to be of importance for how parents experience the support and CHS nurses describe feeling insecure when running the groups. Lack of facilitation, structure and leadership might jeopardise the potential b...

BACKGROUND The importance of involving men in reproductive, maternal and child health programs is increasingly recognised globally. In the Pacific region, most maternal and child health services do not actively engage expectant fathers and fathers of young children and few studies have been conducted on the challenges, benefits and opportunities for involving fathers. This study explores the at...

BACKGROUND Nepal has been receiving foreign aid since the early 1950s. Currently, the country's health care system is heavily dependent on aid, even for the provision of basic health services to its people. Globally, the mechanism for the dispersal of foreign aid is becoming increasingly complex. Numerous stakeholders are involved at various levels: donors, intermediary organisations, project-i...

BACKGROUND Often new arrivals from refugee backgrounds have experienced poor health and limited access to healthcare services. The maternal and child health (MCH) service in Victoria, Australia, is a joint local and state government operated, cost-free service available to all mothers of children aged 0-6 years. Although well-child healthcare visits are useful in identifying health issues early...

Paediatricians need to know what local and national information strategy is about so that they are included in the debates taking place at both levels and secondly because the possession of relevant and accurate information about the child health services is becoming vital in the fight for a share of limited NHS resources. The NHS has an Information Management Group as part of the executive whi...

OBJECTIVES To examine the level and trend in the coverage gap of a set of interventions of maternal and child health services using a summary index and to assess the disparity in usage of maternal and child health services in the districts of high focus states of India. DESIGN Data for the present study are taken from the Annual Health Survey (AHS), 2010-2013 and Census of India, 2011. SETT...