Eight years into the horizon of aspirational maternal and newborn health pledges: a nationwide cross-sectional exploration of the Burundian EmONC network capacity and budget deficits.

OBJECTIVE: The Burundian emergency obstetric and neonatal care (EmONC) programme, which was initiated in 2017 and supported by a specific policy, does not appear to reverse maternal and newborn mortality trends. Our study examined the capacity challenges facing participating EmONC facilities and developed alternative investment proposals to improve their readiness paying particular attention to EmONC professionals, physical infrastructure, and capital equipment. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Burundian EmONC facilities (n=112). PARTICIPANTS: We examined EmONC policy documents, consulted 12 maternal and newborn health experts and 23 stakeholders and policymakers, surveyed all EmONC facilities (n=112), and collected cost data from the Ministry of Health and local suppliers in Burundi. We developed three context-specific EmONC resource benchmark standards by facility type; the Burundian policy norms and the expert minimum and maximum suggested thresholds; and used these alternatives to estimate EmONC resource gaps. We forecasted three corresponding budget estimates needed to address prevailing deficits taking a government perspective for a 5-year EmONC investment strategy. Additionally, we explored relationships between EmONC professionals and selected measures of service delivery using bivariate analyses and graphically. RESULTS: The lowest EmONC resource benchmark revealed that 95% of basic EmONC and all comprehensive EmONC facilities lack corresponding sets of human resources and 90% of all facilities need additional physical infrastructure and capital equipment. Assessed against the highest benchmark which proposes the most progressive set of standards for the prevailing workloads, Burundi would require 162 more medical doctors, 1005 midwives and nurses, 132 delivery rooms, 191 delivery tables, 678 and 156 maternity and newborn care beds, and 395 incubators amounting to US$32.9 million additional budget for 5 years. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that Burundian EmONC facilities face enormous capacity challenges equivalent to US$32.9 million funding gap for 5 years; averagely approximating to 5.96% total health budget increase annually.

A digitalized program to improve antenatal health care in a rural setting in North-Western Burundi: Early evidence-based lessons.

In Burundi, the north-western region continues to grapple with the lowest level of antenatal care (ANC) attendance rate which is constantly about half the national average of 49% ANC4 coverage. Despite a dearth of empirical evidence to understand the determinants of this suboptimal attendance of ANC, widespread evidence informs that women forget scheduled ANC appointments. We designed and tested a digital intervention that uses a reminder model aimed at increasing the number of women who attend at least 4 ANC visits in this region. We enrolled a cohort of 132 pregnant women who were followed until childbirth using a single arm pre- and post-test design. The digital model builds on the collaboration between midwives or nurses, community health workers (CHWs), and pregnant women who are centrally connected through regular automated communications generated by the cPanel of the digital intervention. In addition to ANC attendances, we nested a cross-sectional survey to understand mothers' perceptions and acceptability of the digital intervention using the acceptability framework by Sekhon et al. (2017). Descriptive analyses were performed to observe the trend in ANC attendance and logistic regressions fitted to seize determinants affecting mothers' acceptability of the intervention. Of 132 enrolled pregnant women, 1 (0.76%) dropped out. From a baseline of 23%, nearly 73.7% of mothers attended their subsequent ANC visits after the start of the intervention. From the third month of intervention, about 80% of mothers constantly attended ANC appointments; which corresponds to greater than 200% increase from the baseline. Findings showed that 96.2% of mothers expressed satisfaction, 77.1% positively reacted to automated reminders (attitudes), 70.2% expressed willingness to participate, and 86.3% had the ability to actively participate to the intervention. Conversely, half of mothers confirmed that participation to this programme somewhat affected their time management. A key learning is that digital interventions have a lot of promise to improve pregnancy monitoring in rural settings. However, the overall user acceptability was low especially among mothers lacking personal mobile phone.

Addressing the need for an appropriate skilled delivery care workforce in Burundi to support Maternal and Newborn Health Service Delivery Redesign (MNH-Redesign): a sequential study protocol.

Background Despite Burundi having formed a network of 112 health facilities that provide emergency obstetric and neonatal care (EmONC), the country continues to struggle with high rates of maternal and newborn deaths. There is a dearth of empirical evidence on the capacity and performance of EmONC health facilities and on the real needs to inform proper planning and policy. Our study aims to generate evidence on the capacity and performance of EmONC health facilities in Burundi and examine how the country might develop an appropriate skilled delivery care workforce to improve maternal and newborn survival. Methods We will use a sequential design where each study phase serially inputs into the subsequent phase. Three main study phases will be carried out: i) an initial policy document review to explore global norms and local policy intentions for EmONC staffing and ii) a cross-sectional survey of all EmONC health facilities to determine what percent of facilities are functional including geographic and population coverage gaps, identify staffing gaps assessed against norms, and identify other needs for health facility strengthening. Finally, we will conduct surveys in schools and different ministries to examine training and staffing costs to inform staffing options that might best promote service delivery with adequate budget impacts to increase efficiency. Throughout the study, we will engage stakeholders to provide input into what is reasonable staffing norms as well as feasible staffing alternatives within Burundi's budget capacity. Analytical models will be used to develop staffing proposals over a realistic policy timeline. Conclusion Evidence-based health planning improves cost-effectiveness and reduces wastage within scarce and resource-constrained contexts. This study will be the first large-scale research in Burundi that builds on stakeholder support to generate evidence on the capacity of designated EmONC health facilities including human resources diagnosis and develop staffing skill-mix tradeoffs for policy discussion.

Empirical analysis of socio-economic determinants of maternal health services utilisation in Burundi.

BACKGROUND: Timely and appropriate health care during pregnancy and childbirth are the pillars of better maternal health outcomes. However, factors such as poverty and low education levels, long distances to a health facility, and high costs of health services may present barriers to timely access and utilisation of maternal health services. Despite antenatal care (ANC), delivery and postnatal care being free at the point of use in Burundi, utilisation of these services remains low: between 2011 and 2017, only 49% of pregnant women attended at least four ANC visits. This study explores the socio-economic determinants that affect utilisation of maternal health services in Burundi. METHODS: We use data from the 2016-2017 Burundi Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) collected from 8941 women who reported a live birth in the five years that preceded the survey. We use multivariate regression analysis to explore which individual-, household-, and community-level factors determine the likelihood that women will seek ANC services from a trained health professional, the number of ANC visits they make, and the choice of assisted childbirth. RESULTS: Occupation, marital status, and wealth increase the likelihood that women will seek ANC services from a trained health professional. The likelihood that a woman consults a trained health professional for ANC services is 18 times and 16 times more for married women and women living in partnership, respectively. More educated women and those who currently live a union or partnership attend more ANC visits than non-educated women and women not in union. At higher birth orders, women tend to not attend ANC visits. The more ANC visits attended, and the wealthier women are; the more likely they are to have assisted childbirth. Women who complete four or more ANC visits are 14 times more likely to have an assisted childbirth. CONCLUSIONS: In Burundi, utilisation of maternal health services is low and is mainly driven by legal union and wealth status. To improve equitable access to maternal health services for vulnerable population groups such as those with lower wealth status and unmarried women, the government should consider certain demand stimulating policy packages targeted at these groups.

Towards achieving the family planning targets in the African region: a rapid review of task sharing policies.

BACKGROUND: Expanding access and use of effective contraception is important in achieving universal access to reproductive healthcare services, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), such as those in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Shortage of trained healthcare providers is an important contributor to increased unmet need for contraception in SSA. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends task sharing as an important strategy to improve access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services by addressing shortage of healthcare providers. This study explores the status, successes, challenges and impacts of the implementation of task sharing for family planning in five SSA countries. This evidence is aimed at promoting the implementation and scale-up of task sharing programmes in SSA countries by WHO. METHODOLOGY AND FINDINGS: We employed a rapid programme review (RPR) methodology to generate evidence on task sharing for family planning programmes from five SSA countries namely, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Nigeria. This involved a desk review of country task sharing policy documents, implementation plans and guidelines, annual sexual and reproductive health programme reports, WHO regional meeting reports on task sharing for family planning; and information from key informants on country background, intervention packages, impact, enablers, challenges and ways forward on task sharing for family planning. The findings indicate mainly the involvement of community health workers, midwives and nurses in the task sharing programmes with training in provision of contraceptive pills and long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC). Results indicate an increase in family planning indicators during the task shifting implementation period. For instance, injectable contraceptive use increased more than threefold within six months in Burkina Faso; contraceptive prevalence rate doubled with declines in total fertility and unmet need for contraception in Ethiopia; and uptake of LARC increased in Ghana and Nigeria. Some barriers to successful implementation include poor retention of lower cadre providers, inadequate documentation, and poor data systems. CONCLUSIONS: Task sharing plays a role in increasing contraceptive uptake and holds promise in promoting universal access to family planning in the SSA region. Evidence from this RPR is helpful in elaborating country policies and scale-up of task sharing for family planning programmes.

RESUME: INTRODUCTION: L'élargissement de l'accès et de l'utilisation d'une contraception efficace est important pour parvenir à l'accès universel aux services de santé reproductive, en particulier dans les pays à revenu faible et intermédiaire, comme ceux de l'Afrique subsaharienne. L'insuffisance de prestataires de soins de santé qualifiés est un facteur important de l'augmentation des besoins non satisfaits en matière de contraception en Afrique subsaharienne. L'Organisation mondiale de la Santé (OMS) recommande le partage des tâches comme stratégie importante pour améliorer l'accès aux services de santé sexuelle et reproductive en s'attaquant à la pénurie des prestataires de soins de santé. Cette étude explore l'état des lieux, les réussites, les défis et les impacts de la mise en œuvre du partage des tâches pour la planification familiale dans cinq pays d'Afrique subsaharienne. Ces données factuelles visent à promouvoir la mise en œuvre et l'extension des programmes de partage des tâches dans les pays d'Afrique sub-saharienne par l'OMS. MéTHODOLOGIE ET RéSULTATS: Nous avons utilisé la méthodologie de la revue rapide des programmes (RPR) pour générer des données sur le partage des tâches pour les programmes de planification familiale de cinq pays d'Afrique subsaharienne, à savoir le Burkina Faso, la Côte d'Ivoire, l'Éthiopie, le Ghana et le Nigéria. Cela impliquait la revue documentaire des documents de politique nationale de partage des tâches, des plans de mise en œuvre et des directives, des rapports annuels sur les programmes de santé sexuelle et reproductive, des rapports des réunions régionales de l'OMS sur le partage des tâches pour la planification familiale; et des informations provenant des informateurs clés sur le contexte du pays, les programmes d'intervention, l'impact, les catalyseurs, les défis et les voies à suivre pour le partage des tâches pour la planification familiale. Les résultats indiquent principalement l'implication des agents de santé communautaires, des sages-femmes et des infirmières dans les programmes de partage des tâches avec une formation liée à l'approvisionnement de pilules contraceptives et de contraceptifs réversibles à longue durée d'action (LARC). Les résultats indiquent une augmentation des indicateurs de planification familiale pendant la période de mise en œuvre du partage des tâches. Par exemple, l'utilisation des contraceptifs injectables a plus que triplé en six mois au Burkina Faso; le taux de prévalence de la contraception a doublé avec une baisse de la fécondité totale et des besoins non satisfaits en matière de contraception en Éthiopie; et l'adoption du LARC a augmenté au Ghana et au Nigéria. Certains obstacles à la réussite de la mise en œuvre comprennent une faible rétention des prestataires de niveau inférieur, une documentation inadéquate et des systèmes peu performants de gestion des données. CONCLUSIONS: Le partage des tâches joue un rôle important dans l'augmentation de l'utilisation de la contraception et dans la promotion de l'accès universel à la planification familiale dans la région Afrique subsaharienne. Les données de ce RPR sont utiles pour l'élaboration des politiques nationales et l'intensification du partage des tâches pour les programmes de planification familiale. Correct and consistent use of contraceptives has been shown to reduce pregnancy and childbirth related maternal deaths and generally improve reproductive health. However, statistics show that many women of reproductive age in SSA who ought to be using contraceptives are not using them. As a result, high rates of maternal deaths from pregnancy or childbirth-related complications have been recorded in the region. One of the key barriers to accessing family planning in SSA is the shortage of healthcare providers. To address this problem, WHO recommends task sharing as an intervention to improve access and use of sexual and reproductive health services including family planning. While task sharing guidelines have been developed and disseminated in many SSA countries, limited evidence exists on their adoption, implementation and outcomes to promote scale-up. This study undertook a rapid programme review of evidence from policy documents, implementation plans and guidelines, annual sexual and reproductive health programme reports, regional meeting reports and key stakeholder reports on task sharing to explore the status, successes, challenges and impacts of the implementation of task sharing for family planning in five SSA countries: Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Nigeria. We found that task sharing programmes mainly involved community health workers, midwives and nurses. The intervention led to increased modern contraception access and use and general improvement in family planning indicators during the implementation periods. Some barriers to successful implementation of task sharing include poor retention of lower cadre providers, inadequate documentation, and poor data systems.

COVID-19 and routine childhood immunization in Africa: Leveraging systems thinking and implementation science to improve immunization system performance.

One of the routine health services that is being disrupted by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Africa is childhood immunization. This is because the immunization system relies on functioning health facilities and stable communities to be effective. Its disruption increases the risk of epidemics of vaccine-preventable diseases, which could increase child mortality. Therefore, policymakers must quickly identify robust and context-specific strategies to rapidly scale-up routine immunization in order to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on their national immunization performance. To achieve this, we propose a paradigm shift towards systems thinking and use of implementation science in immunization decision-making. Systems thinking can inform a more nuanced and holistic understanding of the interrelationship between COVID-19, its control strategies, and childhood immunization. Tools like causal loop diagrams can be used to explicitly illustrate the systems structure by identifying feedback loops. Once mapped and leverage points for interventions have been identified, implementation science can be used to guide the rapid uptake and utilization of multifaceted evidence-based innovations in complex practice settings. As Africa re-strategizes for the post-2020 era, these emerging fields could contribute significantly in accelerating progress towards universal access to vaccines for all children on the continent despite COVID-19.

Improving long-lasting insecticidal nets use in Kayange community of north-western Burundi: a pilot study exploring the use of quality improvement methodologies in low-resource community settings.

Quality improvement (QI) approaches have demonstrated a lot of promise in improving clinical care processes, both in high-resource and low-resource settings. However, most examples of QI initiatives in healthcare in low-income countries are clinic-based. The objective of this study was to demonstrate feasibility of applying QI methods in low-resource community settings by applying them to the problem of correct utilisation of long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) in a rural community in Burundi. Correct utilisation of LLINs had been shown to be a cost-effective approach to malaria prevention. In Burundi, LLINs utilisation is low. The Model for Improvement, a well-known QI approach, was used to increase LLINs utilisation in a rural community in Burundi. In the baseline, LLINs ownership and weekly utilisation together with factors affecting LLINs non-use were documented for a period of 4 weeks before intervention. Improvement ideas were collaboratively developed by a quality improvement team (QIT) and tested using Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles. The first PDSA cycle consisted of the demonstration of how to mount LLINs, the second was an implementation of reminders done by household 'watchdogs', the third cycle consisted of conducting two community reminders every week and the last cycle was a combination of the last two PDSA cycles. The intervention lasted 4 weeks and data were collected weekly. LLINs utilisation was calculated each week and plotted on a run chart to demonstrate improvement trends. LLINs utilisation data were collected for another 3 weeks postintervention. Of 96 households, 83 (87%) households owned at least one LLIN. After intervention, the number of LLINs used increased from 32% to 75% (134% increase) and the number of persons (general population) sleeping under LLINs from 35% to 73% (108% increase). The number of children under 5 years sleeping under LLINs increased from 31% to 76% (145% increase) and the number of pregnant women who slept under LLINs from 43% to 73% (69% increase). Also, the averages of the number of nights in each week that the general population slept under LLINs increased from 2.13 to 5.11 (140% increase), children under 5 years from 1.68 to 4.78 (184% increase) and pregnant women from 1.56 to 4.47 (186% increase). Each of the 4 PDSA cycles led to a significant increase in outcome indicators and the trends appear to persist even after the implementation was complete. While it is impossible to draw generalisable conclusions from a small pilot study, QI approaches appear to be feasible to implement in low-resource community setting and have promise in producing results. More research at larger scale should be encouraged to validate our initial findings.

A prospective evaluation of phrenic nerve conduction in multifocal motor neuropathy and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate electrophysiologically phrenic nerve involvement in multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN) and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP). The response latencies following phrenic nerve stimulation were increased in 11 of 14 (80%) patients in the CIDP group but in only 1 of 14 (8%) patients in the MMN group. The mean diaphragmatic compound muscle action potential (CMAP) was significantly lower in amplitude in the CIDP group compared to the MMN group and to a control group of 8 subjects (P < 0.001). There were no significant differences between the MMN and control groups. Only the reduction in CMAP amplitude correlated with the presence of restrictive lung function. Phrenic nerve conduction measurement should be performed more systematically, especially in CIDP and, when diaphragmatic CMAPs are reduced in amplitude, pulmonary function tests should be performed to look for a restrictive lung syndrome.