Effects, equity, and cost of school-based and community-wide treatment strategies for soil-transmitted helminths in Kenya: a cluster-randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: School-based deworming programmes can reduce morbidity attributable to soil-transmitted helminths in children but do not interrupt transmission in the wider community. We assessed the effects of alternative mass treatment strategies on community soil-transmitted helminth infection. METHODS: In this cluster-randomised controlled trial, 120 community units (clusters) serving 150 000 households in Kenya were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to receive albendazole through annual school-based treatment targeting 2-14 year olds or annual or biannual community-wide treatment targeting all ages. The primary outcome was community hookworm prevalence, assessed at 12 and 24 months through repeat cross-sectional surveys. Secondary outcomes were Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura prevalence, infection intensity of each soil-transmitted helminth species, and treatment coverage and costs. Analysis was by intention to treat. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02397772. FINDINGS: After 24 months, prevalence of hookworm changed from 18·6% (95% CI 13·9-23·2) to 13·8% (10·5-17·0) in the annual school-based treatment group, 17·9% (13·7-22·1) to 8·0% (6·0-10·1) in the annual community-wide treatment group, and 20·6% (15·8-25·5) to 6·2% (4·9-7·5) in the biannual community-wide treatment group. Relative to annual school-based treatment, the risk ratio for annual community-wide treatment was 0·59 (95% CI 0·42-0·83; p<0·001) and for biannual community-wide treatment was 0·46 (0·33-0·63; p<0·001). More modest reductions in risk were observed after 12 months. Risk ratios were similar across demographic and socioeconomic subgroups after 24 months. No adverse events related to albendazole were reported. INTERPRETATION: Community-wide treatment was more effective in reducing hookworm prevalence and intensity than school-based treatment, with little additional benefit of treating every 6 months, and was shown to be remarkably equitable in coverage and effects. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Joint Global Health Trials Scheme of the Medical Research Council, the UK Department for International Development, the Wellcome Trust, and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation.

Cost-effectiveness of strategies to improve the utilization and provision of maternal and newborn health care in low-income and lower-middle-income countries: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Each year almost 3 million newborns die within the first 28 days of life, 2.6 million babies are stillborn, and 287,000 women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth worldwide. Effective and cost-effective interventions and behaviours for mothers and newborns exist, but their coverage remains inadequate in low- and middle-income countries, where the vast majority of deaths occur. Cost-effective strategies are needed to increase the coverage of life-saving maternal and newborn interventions and behaviours in resource-constrained settings. METHODS: A systematic review was undertaken on the cost-effectiveness of strategies to improve the demand and supply of maternal and newborn health care in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. Peer-reviewed and grey literature published since 1990 was searched using bibliographic databases, websites of selected organizations, and reference lists of relevant studies and reviews. Publications were eligible for inclusion if they report on a behavioural or health systems strategy that sought to improve the utilization or provision of care during pregnancy, childbirth or the neonatal period; report on its cost-effectiveness; and were set in one or more low-income or lower-middle-income countries. The quality of the publications was assessed using the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards statement. Incremental cost per life-year saved and per disability-adjusted life-year averted were compared to gross domestic product per capita. RESULTS: Forty-eight publications were identified, which reported on 43 separate studies. Sixteen were judged to be of high quality. Common themes were identified and the strategies were presented in relation to the continuum of care and the level of the health system. There was reasonably strong evidence for the cost-effectiveness of the use of women's groups, home-based newborn care using community health workers and traditional birth attendants, adding services to routine antenatal care, a facility-based quality improvement initiative to enhance compliance with care standards, and the promotion of breastfeeding in maternity hospitals. Other strategies reported cost-effectiveness measures that had limited comparability. CONCLUSION: Demand and supply-side strategies to improve maternal and newborn health care can be cost-effective, though the evidence is limited by the paucity of high quality studies and the use of disparate cost-effectiveness measures. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO_ CRD42012003255.

NEWHINTS cluster randomised trial to evaluate the impact on neonatal mortality in rural Ghana of routine home visits to provide a package of essential newborn care interventions in the third trimester of pregnancy and the first week of life: trial protocol.

BACKGROUND: Tackling neonatal mortality is essential for the achievement of the child survival millennium development goal. There are just under 4 million neonatal deaths, accounting for 38% of the 10.8 million deaths among children younger than 5 years of age taking place each year; 99% of these occur in low- and middle-income countries where a large proportion of births take place at home, and where postnatal care for mothers and neonates is either not available or is of poor quality. WHO and UNICEF have issued a joint statement calling for governments to implement "Home visits for the newborn child: a strategy to improve survival", following several studies in South Asia which achieved substantial reductions in neonatal mortality through community-based approaches. However, their feasibility and effectiveness have not yet been evaluated in Africa. The Newhints study aims to do this in Ghana and to develop a feasible and sustainable community-based approach to improve newborn care practices, and by so doing improve neonatal survival. METHODS: Newhints is an integrated intervention package based on extensive formative research, and developed in close collaboration with seven District Health Management Teams (DHMTs) in Brong Ahafo Region. The core component is training the existing community based surveillance volunteers (CBSVs) to identify pregnant women and to conduct two home visits during pregnancy and three in the first week of life to address essential care practices, and to assess and refer very low birth weight and sick babies. CBSVs are supported by a set of materials, regular supervisory visits, incentives, sensitisation activities with TBAs, health facility staff and communities, and providing training for essential newborn care in health facilities.Newhints is being evaluated through a cluster randomised controlled trial, and intention to treat analyses. The clusters are 98 supervisory zones; 49 have been randomised for implementation of the Newhints intervention, with the other 49 acting as controls. Data on neonatal mortality and care practices will be collected from approximately 15,000 babies through surveillance of women of child-bearing age in the 7 districts. Detailed process, cost and cost-effectiveness evaluations are also being carried out. TRIAL REGISTRATION: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov (identifier NCT00623337).