Access to and utilisation of quality healthcare promotes positive child health outcomes. However, to be optimally utilised, the healthcare system needs to be responsive to the expectations of the population it serves. Health systems in many sub-Saharan African countries, including Malawi, have historically focused on promoting access to health services by the rural poor. However, in the context...

Introduction: The early diagnosis of developmental disorders and timely interventions profoundly affect the health of children and their families; however, the detection rate of these disorders is much lower than the actual one. The present study aimed to explore effects of educating mothers about the national child development screening plan on identifying children with abnormal development. M...

Background Despite numerous efforts to improve maternal and child health in Malawi, maternal and newborn mortality rates remain very high, with the country having one of the highest maternal mortality ratios globally. The aim of this study was to identify which individual factors best predict utilisation of skilled maternal healthcare in a sample of women residing in Lilongwe district of ...

BACKGROUND Child abuse is a widespread social phenomenon with serious life-time consequences. Since parents bring their children to healthcare centers for growth screening and vaccinations, Community Health Workers play an important role in identifying and reporting child abuse cases. Thus, the current study aimed to investigate knowledge, attitude and performance of Community Health Workers re...

most children in hospital have pain. seeing your child in pain or discomfort is incredibly difficult. pain in children is a public health concern of major significance in most parts of the world. we have learned that unrelieved pain causes the body to release certain chemicals that may actually delay healing, so it's important to work with child's nurses and doctors to help children f...

OBJECTIVE To understand how parents view and experience their role as their child with a long-term physical health condition transitions to adulthood and adult healthcare services. METHODS Five databases were systematically searched for qualitative articles examining parents' views and experiences of their child's healthcare transition. Papers were quality assessed and thematically synthesise...

Patient Centred Care (PCC) is a recognized pillar of quality healthcare. According to the Institute of Medicine (Kohn et al. 2000), PCC respects and is responsive to individual patient preferences, needs and values, and ensures they guide all clinical decisions. In a pediatric setting, both the child and family's preferences and values are critical; as a result, the concept of PCC is broadened ...

Regional diversity Geographically large and home to a substantial proportion of the world’s population, the region includes substantial diversity in culture, language, economic maturation and demography. Most nations share problems such as ageing populations, increasing complexity of disease, workforce shortages, a need for increasing technology and accelerating costs. Some project substantial ...

BACKGROUND Côte d'Ivoire continues to struggle with one of the highest rates of mother-to-child HIV transmission in West Africa, previously thought to be in part due to suboptimal workforce patterns. This study aimed to understand the process through which workforce patterns impact prevention of mother-to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) program success, from the perspective of healthcare work...

Pediatricians increasingly endorse a dual generation approach to health, in which parental health behaviors are recognized as critical to promoting child health. Positive parental behaviors often emerge during pregnancy, for reasons that remain incompletely described. We surveyed mothers in the immediate postpartum period to identify beliefs about health behavior change and characteristics of p...