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Intervention Design Elements Are Associated with Frontline Health Workers' Performance to Deliver Infant and Young Child Nutrition Services in Bangladesh and Vietnam.

ABSTRACT: Background:Frontline health workers (FLWs) are needed for delivering interventions at scale to reduce maternal and child undernutrition, but low- and middle-income countries often face inadequate FLW performance. Objectives:We examined whether and how intervention design elements such as training, supervision, and mass media improved FLW performance in delivering nutrition services. Methods:Survey data were collected in 2010 and 2014 as part of impact evaluations of Alive & Thrive (A&T) interventions to improve infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices in Bangladesh and Vietnam. FLWs in A&T intensive (A&T-I) areas received specialized IYCF training, job aids, and regular supportive supervision. Those in non-intensive (A&T-NI) areas received standard government training and supervision. There was mass media exposure in both areas. Multiple regression was used to test differences in exposure to intervention design elements and performance outcomes between the 2 program areas. Path analyses were conducted to examine the paths from exposure to performance outcomes measured at FLW and end-user levels. Results:Compared to FLWs in A&T-NI areas, those in A&T-I areas had higher scores in training (by 1.3-3.6 of 10 points), supportive supervision (0.3-3.5 points), and mass media exposure (0.3-3.5 points). These intervention design elements were significantly associated with FLW knowledge and motivation, which in turn improved service delivery. FLW-level performance outcomes contributed to improving end-user-level outcomes such as higher service received (? = 0.12-1.04 in Bangladesh and 0.11-0.96 in Vietnam) and maternal knowledge (? = 0.12-0.17 in Bangladesh and 0.04-0.21 in Vietnam). Conclusions:Training, supervision, and mass media exposure can be implemented at large scale and contribute to improved FLW service delivery by enhancing knowledge and motivation, which in turn positively influence mother's service utilization and IYCF knowledge. Training, supervision, and mass media to enhance service provision should be considered when designing interventions. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01678716 (Bangladesh) and NCT01676623 (Vietnam).

SUBMITTER: Nguyen PH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6642067 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Intervention Design Elements Are Associated with Frontline Health Workers' Performance to Deliver Infant and Young Child Nutrition Services in Bangladesh and Vietnam.

Nguyen Phuong Hong PH Kim Sunny S SS Tran Lan Mai LM Menon Purnima P Frongillo Edward A EA

Current developments in nutrition 20190710 8

<h4>Background</h4>Frontline health workers (FLWs) are needed for delivering interventions at scale to reduce maternal and child undernutrition, but low- and middle-income countries often face inadequate FLW performance.<h4>Objectives</h4>We examined whether and how intervention design elements such as training, supervision, and mass media improved FLW performance in delivering nutrition services.<h4>Methods</h4>Survey data were collected in 2010 and 2014 as part of impact evaluations of Alive & ...[more]

PMID: 31346584

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Project description:IntroductionOperationalizing effective subnational veterinary services as major contributor to disease surveillance, reporting, diagnoses and One Health requires resources and mindset change. Here we describe workforce capacity building in animal health in Kenya and an approach that can be used to skill-up this workforce to respond beyond animal health challenges to emergent One Health realities and public health emergencies. Furthermore, triggering a paradigm shift has been identified for impactful delivery of health services, thus mindset change are important for learning new skills, but they also affect the way that we think about everything, for instance training in field epidemiology. Emphasis was therefore placed on skills, beliefs, and mindset shift.MethodsContextualized within the Kenyan environment, this description identifies problems likely to be found elsewhere: They are (a) The limited programs that offer structured and routine on-the-job training for animal health workers; (b) Unequal distribution and inadequate quantity and quality of highly skilled workforce with appropriate technical training and scientific skills to combat public (and animal) health challenges at the frontline; (c) Health challenges occasioned by climate change and drought, including feed, and water scarcity; and (d) Inadequate contingency, preparedness, and response planning for effective deployment of ready-to-trigger workforce capacity. In-Service Applied Veterinary Epidemiology Training (ISAVET) is a four-month long training program targeted at capacity building of frontline animal health professionals. The training, which is currently implemented in 17 African countries, is innovative and a customized field epidemiology program, which responds to specific needs in animal health and contribute to approaches utilizing One Health.ResultsSeveral trainees have marked mindset change as shown in the outputs and outcomes. Positive attitudes towards improving animal health surveillance were noted during the evaluation process.Discussion and conclusionMost existing workforce capacities in the animal and public health systems were built for specific fields, and hardly respond optimally for cross-sectoral purposes. We proposed customised in-service applied veterinary epidemiology training that bypasses narrow-scoped workforce development but meets multifunctional, multidisciplinary and multisectoral needs before and during emergencies.

Project description:BackgroundThe persistence of rural-urban disparities in child nutrition outcomes in developing countries alongside rapid urbanisation and increasing incidence of child malnutrition in urban areas raises an important health policy question - whether fundamentally different nutrition policies and interventions are required in rural and urban areas. Addressing this question requires an enhanced understanding of the main drivers of rural-urban disparities in child nutrition outcomes especially for the vulnerable segments of the population. This study applies recently developed statistical methods to quantify the contribution of different socio-economic determinants to rural-urban differences in child nutrition outcomes in two South Asian countries - Bangladesh and Nepal.MethodsUsing DHS data sets for Bangladesh and Nepal, we apply quantile regression-based counterfactual decomposition methods to quantify the contribution of (1) the differences in levels of socio-economic determinants (covariate effects) and (2) the differences in the strength of association between socio-economic determinants and child nutrition outcomes (co-efficient effects) to the observed rural-urban disparities in child HAZ scores. The methodology employed in the study allows the covariate and coefficient effects to vary across entire distribution of child nutrition outcomes. This is particularly useful in providing specific insights into factors influencing rural-urban disparities at the lower tails of child HAZ score distributions. It also helps assess the importance of individual determinants and how they vary across the distribution of HAZ scores.ResultsThere are no fundamental differences in the characteristics that determine child nutrition outcomes in urban and rural areas. Differences in the levels of a limited number of socio-economic characteristics - maternal education, spouse's education and the wealth index (incorporating household asset ownership and access to drinking water and sanitation) contribute a major share of rural-urban disparities in the lowest quantiles of child nutrition outcomes. Differences in the strength of association between socio-economic characteristics and child nutrition outcomes account for less than a quarter of rural-urban disparities at the lower end of the HAZ score distribution.ConclusionsPublic health interventions aimed at overcoming rural-urban disparities in child nutrition outcomes need to focus principally on bridging gaps in socio-economic endowments of rural and urban households and improving the quality of rural infrastructure. Improving child nutrition outcomes in developing countries does not call for fundamentally different approaches to public health interventions in rural and urban areas.

Project description:BackgroundIntegrating nutrition actions into service delivery in different policy sectors is an increasing concern. Nutrition literature recognizes the discrepancies existing between policies as adopted and actual service delivery. This study applies a street-level bureaucracy (SLB) perspective to understand frontline workers' practices that enact or impede nutrition integration in services and the conditions galvanizing them.MethodsThis qualitative exploratory study assesses the contextual conditions and practices of 45 frontline workers employed by the agriculture, health and community development departments in two Ugandan districts.ResultsFrontline workers incur different demands and resources arising at societal, organizational, and individual level. Hence, they adopt nine co-existing practices that ultimately shape nutrition service delivery. Nutrition integration is accomplished through: (1) ritualizing task performance; (2) bundling with established services; (3) scheduling services on a specific day; and (4) piggybacking on services in other domains. Disintegration results from (5) non-involvement and (6) shifting blame to other entities. Other practices display both integrative and disintegrative effects: (7) creaming off citizens; (8) down prioritization by fixating on a few nutrition actions; and (9) following the bureaucratic 'jobs worth'. Integrative practices are driven mostly by donors.ConclusionUnderstanding frontline workers' practices is crucial for identifying policy solutions to sustain nutrition improvements. Sustaining services beyond timebound projects necessitates institutionalizing demands and resources within government systems. Interventions to facilitate effective nutrition service delivery should strengthen the integrative capacities of actors across different government levels. This includes investing in integrative leadership, facilitating frontline workers across sectors to provide nutrition services, and adjusting the nutrition monitoring systems to capture cross-sector data and support policy learning.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Poor early-life nutrition is a major barrier to good health and cognitive development, and is a global health priority. Alive & Thrive (A&T) was a multi-pronged initiative to improve infant and young child feeding behaviors. It aimed to achieve at-scale child health and nutrition improvements via a comprehensive approach that included nutrition counseling by health workers, policy change, social mobilization and mass media activities. This study evaluated the sustainability of activities introduced during A&T implementation (2009-2014) in Bangladesh and Vietnam. METHODS:This was a mixed methods study that used a quasi-experimental design. Quantitative data (surveys with 668 health workers, and 269 service observations) were collected in 2017; and analysis compared outcomes (primarily dose and fidelity of activities, and capacity) in former A&T intervention areas versus areas that did not receive the full A&T intervention. Additionally, we conducted interviews and focus groups with 218 stakeholders to explore their impressions about the determinants of sustainability, based on a multi-level conceptual framework. RESULTS:After program conclusion, stakeholders perceive declines in mass media campaigns, policy and advocacy activities, and social mobilization activities - but counseling activities were institutionalized and continued in both countries. Quantitative data show a persisting modest intervention effect: health workers in intervention areas had significantly higher child feeding knowledge, and in Bangladesh greater self-efficacy and job satisfaction, compared to their counterparts who did not receive the full package of A&T activities. While elements of the program were integrated into routine services, stakeholders noted dilution of the program focus due to competing priorities. Qualitative data suggest that some elements, such as training, monitoring, and evaluation, which were seen as essential to A&T's success, have declined in frequency, quality, coverage, or were eliminated altogether. CONCLUSIONS:The inclusion of multiple activities in A&T and efforts to integrate the program into existing institutions were seen as crucial to its success but also made it difficult to sustain, particularly given unstable financial support and human resource constraints. Future complex programs should carefully plan for institutionalization in advance of the program by cultivating champions across the health system, and designing unique and complementary roles for all stakeholders including donors.

Project description:BackgroundIn Nigeria, anecdotes abound that female clients, particularly within northern Nigeria, have gender-based preferences for frontline health workers (FLHWs) who provide healthcare services. This may adversely affect uptake of maternal newborn and child health services, especially at primary healthcare level in Nigeria, where a huge proportion of the Nigerian population and rural community members in particular, access healthcare services. This study explored female clients' gender preferences for frontline health workers who provide maternal, newborn and child healthcare (MNCH) services at primary healthcare level in Nigeria.MethodsThe study adopted a cross-sectional quantitative design with 256 female clients' exit interviews from selected primary health facilities within two States - Bauchi (northern Nigeria) and Cross-River (southern Nigeria). Data was collected using Personal Digital Assistants and data analysis was done using SPSS software. Descriptive analysis was carried out using percentage frequency distribution tables. Bivariate analysis was also carried out to examine possible relationships between key characteristic variables and the gender preferences of female clients involved in the study.ResultsOut of 256 women who accessed maternal, newborn and child health services within the sampled health facilities, 44.1% stated preference for female FLHWs, 2.3% preferred male FLHWs while 53.5% were indifferent about the gender of the health worker. However only 26.6% of female clients were attended to by male FLHWs. Bivariate analysis suggests a relationship between a female client's health worker gender preference and her pregnancy status, the specific reason for which a female client visits a primary healthcare facility, a female client's location in Nigeria as well as the gender of the health worker(s) working within the primary healthcare facility which she visits to access maternal, newborn and child health services.ConclusionsThe study findings suggest that female clients at primary healthcare level in Nigeria possibly have gender preferences for the frontline health workers who provide services to them. There should be sustained advocacy and increased efforts at community engagement to promote the acceptability of healthcare services from male frontline health workers in order to have a significant impact on the uptake of MNCH services, particularly within northern Nigeria.

Project description:BackgroundSocial and behavior change communication interventions are integral to improving dietary and care practices, but evidence on the impact of the combination and intensity of these interventions in different contexts is scarce.ObjectivesWe examined the extent of and factors associated with intervention exposure: interpersonal communication (IPC) alone or with other interventions (i.e., mass media, community mobilization, or nutrition-sensitive agricultural activities), number of and factors associated with IPC contacts, and combinations of intervention components and number of contacts associated with infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices.MethodsWe used endline survey data from impact evaluations in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Vietnam (n = 1001, 1720, and 1001 mothers with children aged <2 y, respectively). Multivariable regression models were used for analyses.ResultsExposure to the interventions varied in all 3 countries. On average, mothers received 8 visits in the last 6 mo in Bangladesh, 2 visits in the last 3 mo in Ethiopia, and 1 visit in the last 6 mo in Vietnam. Across countries, the factors associated with intervention exposure and number of IPC contacts differed. In Ethiopia, exposure to IPC with other interventions was associated with higher odds of achieving minimum meal frequency (OR: 1.6), minimum dietary diversity (OR: 1.8), and consumption of iron-rich foods (OR: 4.7). In Vietnam, exposure to IPC alone or with mass media was associated with higher odds of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF; OR: 2.8-3.7). Near-monthly visits were associated with 2-3 times higher odds of IYCF practices in Bangladesh and Ethiopia. In Vietnam, even 1 IPC visit was associated with 2 times higher odds of EBF.ConclusionsExposure matters for impact, but the combination of behavior change interventions and number of IPC contacts required to support IYCF behavior change are context specific. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01678716 (Bangladesh), NCT02775552 (Ethiopia), and NCT01676623 (Vietnam).

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Intervention Design Elements Are Associated with Frontline Health Workers' Performance to Deliver Infant and Young Child Nutrition Services in Bangladesh and Vietnam.

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Intervention Design Elements Are Associated with Frontline Health Workers' Performance to Deliver Infant and Young Child Nutrition Services in Bangladesh and Vietnam.

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