ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) has become a critical intervention for malaria prevention and control. There is a growing interest to generate evidence that health campaigns such as SMC can be leveraged for integration or co-administration of other health efforts such as nutritional supplements, immunizations, or vitamin A. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a pilot study to assess whether nutrition assessments could be integrated into existing SMC programming in two districts in Guinea. METHODS: Of 106,480 children under 5 years of age (CU5) who received sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine plus amodiaquine as part of SMC by community drug distributors (CDDs), 2210 had their mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) assessed by CDD supervisors. RESULTS: Of these, 177 (8.0%) had a MUAC < 125 mm and were therefore classified as acutely malnourished; 161 CU5 were referred to health facilities for follow-up. Importantly, no drop in SMC programmatic coverage was observed in districts conducting MUAC on top of SMC. Key informant interviews with district officials and focus group discussions with CDD supervisors showed a generally positive effect of integrating MUAC into SMC, although CDD supervisors had concerns about workload with added responsibilities of MUAC assessments. CONCLUSION: Integrating other health interventions with SMC is accepted-and indeed welcomed-by the population and health workers, and does not result in a drop in SMC programmatic coverage.
Subject(s)
Antimalarials , Malaria , Child , Humans , Infant , Child, Preschool , Antimalarials/therapeutic use , Seasons , Guinea , Feasibility Studies , Nutrition Assessment , Pilot Projects , Malaria/epidemiology , Chemoprevention/methodsABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Climate change constitutes a major threat to human health. Nurses have an essential role to play in protecting populations from this threat, and to fulfil this role, they must be properly prepared. The purpose of this scoping review is to examine studies on the integration of climate change into the academic curriculum or continuing education of nurses so as to identify issues and opportunities related to this integration. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The method being used is the methodological framework proposed by Arksey and O'Malley and Levac et al. First, a search strategy using keywords and their combinations will be developed. This strategy will be applied in four bibliographic databases: MEDLINE (PubMed), CINAHL, Embase, Web of Science. Second, an initial selection of studies based on titles and abstracts will be carried out by two members of the research team using the software Covidence. They will conduct this selection process independently, with the aim of identifying relevant studies that meet the inclusion criteria for our scoping review. Third, the second stage in the selection process will be carried out by examining the full text of each article to determine which studies to include in the review. Finally, data on year of publication, authors, geographical area, article type, study objectives, methodology and key findings will be extracted from selected articles for analysis. A search of the grey literature will also be conducted to supplement the results of the bibliographic database search. The scoping review is currently ongoing. Identification of relevant literature began in the first quarter of 2022 and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2023. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval is not required for this review. The results of this study will be presented in workshops and conferences and be submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed journal.