Introducing a standardised register for strengthening the inpatient management of newborns and sick children: Implementation research in selected health facilities of Bangladesh.

Background: It is imperative to maintain accurate documentation of clinical interventions aimed at enhancing the quality of care for newborns and sick children. The National Newborn Health and IMCI programme of Bangladesh led the development of a standardised register for managing newborns and sick children under five years of age during inpatient care through stakeholder engagement. We aimed to assess the implementation outcomes of the standardised register in the inpatient department. Methods: We conducted implementation research in two district hospitals and two sub-district hospitals of Kushtia and Dinajpur districts from November 2022 to January 2023 to assess the implementation outcomes of the standardised register. We assessed the following World Health Organization implementation outcome variables: usability, acceptability, adoption (actual use), fidelity (completeness and accuracy), and utility (quality of care) of the register against preset benchmarks. We collected data through structured interviews with health care providers; participant enrolment; and data extraction from inpatient registers and case record forms. Results: The average usability and acceptability scores among health care providers were 73 (standard deviation (SD) = 14) and 82 (SD = 14) out of 100, respectively. The inpatient register recorded 96% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 95-97) of under-five children who were admitted to the inpatient department (adoption - actual use). The proportions of completed data elements in the inpatient register were above the preset benchmark of 70% for all the assessed data elements except 'investigation done' (24%; 95% CI = 23-26) (fidelity - completeness). The percentage agreements between government-appointed nurses posted and study-appointed nurses were above the preset benchmark of 70% for all the reported variables (fidelity - accuracy). The kappa coefficient for the overall level of agreement between these two groups regarding reported variables indicated moderate to substantial agreement. The proportion of newborns with sepsis receiving injectable antibiotics was 62% (95% CI = 47-75) (utility - quality of care). We observed some variability in the completeness and accuracy of the inpatient register by district and facility type. Conclusions: The inpatient register was positively received by health care providers, with evaluations of implementation outcome variables showing encouraging results. Our findings could inform evidence-based decision-making on the implementation and scale-up of the inpatient register in Bangladesh, as well as other low- and middle-income countries.

Magnitude of standard precautions practices among healthcare workers in health facilities of Low and Middle Income Countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Standard precautions are the minimum standard of infection control to prevent transmission of infectious agents, protect healthcare workers, patients, and visitors regardless of infection status. The consistent implementation of standard precautions is highly effective in reducing transmission of pathogens that cause HAIs. Despite their effectiveness, compliance, resources, patient behavior, and time constraints are some of the challenges that can arise when implementing standard precautions. The main objective of this meta-analysis was to show the pooled prevalence of safe standard precaution practices among healthcare workers in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). METHODS: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted for this study. We systematically searched observational study articles from PubMed Central and Google Scholar. We included articles published any year and involving healthcare workers. We used Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). The random effect model was used to estimate the pooled prevalence. The meta-analysis, sensitivity analysis, subgroup analysis, and publication bias (funnel plot, and Egger's tests) were conducted. RESULTS: A total of 46 articles were included in this study. The pooled prevalence of standard precautions practices among healthcare workers in LMICs was 53%, with a 95% CI of (47, 59). These studies had a total sample size of 14061 with a minimum sample size of 17 and a maximum sample size of 2086. The majority of the studies (82.6%) were conducted in hospitals only (all kinds), and the remaining 17.4% were conducted in all health facilities, including hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: The pooled prevalence of standard precautions practices among healthcare workers in LMICs was suboptimal. The findings of this study can have substantial implication for healthcare practice and policy making by providing robust evidence with synthesized and pooled evidence from multiple studies. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registered on PROSPERO with record ID: CRD42023395129, on the 9th Feb. 2023.

Reducing Hospitalizations and Multidrug-Resistant Organisms via Regional Decolonization in Hospitals and Nursing Homes.

Importance: Infections due to multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) are associated with increased morbidity, mortality, length of hospitalization, and health care costs. Regional interventions may be advantageous in mitigating MDROs and associated infections. Objective: To evaluate whether implementation of a decolonization collaborative is associated with reduced regional MDRO prevalence, incident clinical cultures, infection-related hospitalizations, costs, and deaths. Design, Setting, and Participants: This quality improvement study was conducted from July 1, 2017, to July 31, 2019, across 35 health care facilities in Orange County, California. Exposures: Chlorhexidine bathing and nasal iodophor antisepsis for residents in long-term care and hospitalized patients in contact precautions (CP). Main Outcomes and Measures: Baseline and end of intervention MDRO point prevalence among participating facilities; incident MDRO (nonscreening) clinical cultures among participating and nonparticipating facilities; and infection-related hospitalizations and associated costs and deaths among residents in participating and nonparticipating nursing homes (NHs). Results: Thirty-five facilities (16 hospitals, 16 NHs, 3 long-term acute care hospitals [LTACHs]) adopted the intervention. Comparing decolonization with baseline periods among participating facilities, the mean (SD) MDRO prevalence decreased from 63.9% (12.2%) to 49.9% (11.3%) among NHs, from 80.0% (7.2%) to 53.3% (13.3%) among LTACHs (odds ratio [OR] for NHs and LTACHs, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.40-0.57), and from 64.1% (8.5%) to 55.4% (13.8%) (OR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.60-0.93) among hospitalized patients in CP. When comparing decolonization with baseline among NHs, the mean (SD) monthly incident MDRO clinical cultures changed from 2.7 (1.9) to 1.7 (1.1) among participating NHs, from 1.7 (1.4) to 1.5 (1.1) among nonparticipating NHs (group × period interaction reduction, 30.4%; 95% CI, 16.4%-42.1%), from 25.5 (18.6) to 25.0 (15.9) among participating hospitals, from 12.5 (10.1) to 14.3 (10.2) among nonparticipating hospitals (group × period interaction reduction, 12.9%; 95% CI, 3.3%-21.5%), and from 14.8 (8.6) to 8.2 (6.1) among LTACHs (all facilities participating; 22.5% reduction; 95% CI, 4.4%-37.1%). For NHs, the rate of infection-related hospitalizations per 1000 resident-days changed from 2.31 during baseline to 1.94 during intervention among participating NHs, and from 1.90 to 2.03 among nonparticipating NHs (group × period interaction reduction, 26.7%; 95% CI, 19.0%-34.5%). Associated hospitalization costs per 1000 resident-days changed from $64 651 to $55 149 among participating NHs and from $55 151 to $59 327 among nonparticipating NHs (group × period interaction reduction, 26.8%; 95% CI, 26.7%-26.9%). Associated hospitalization deaths per 1000 resident-days changed from 0.29 to 0.25 among participating NHs and from 0.23 to 0.24 among nonparticipating NHs (group × period interaction reduction, 23.7%; 95% CI, 4.5%-43.0%). Conclusions and Relevance: A regional collaborative involving universal decolonization in long-term care facilities and targeted decolonization among hospital patients in CP was associated with lower MDRO carriage, infections, hospitalizations, costs, and deaths.

A Nationwide Network of Health AI Assurance Laboratories.

Importance: Given the importance of rigorous development and evaluation standards needed of artificial intelligence (AI) models used in health care, nationwide accepted procedures to provide assurance that the use of AI is fair, appropriate, valid, effective, and safe are urgently needed. Observations: While there are several efforts to develop standards and best practices to evaluate AI, there is a gap between having such guidance and the application of such guidance to both existing and new AI models being developed. As of now, there is no publicly available, nationwide mechanism that enables objective evaluation and ongoing assessment of the consequences of using health AI models in clinical care settings. Conclusion and Relevance: The need to create a public-private partnership to support a nationwide health AI assurance labs network is outlined here. In this network, community best practices could be applied for testing health AI models to produce reports on their performance that can be widely shared for managing the lifecycle of AI models over time and across populations and sites where these models are deployed.

Advantages and disadvantages of maintaining the mandatory use of masks in health centers and nursing homes in Spain. How and when is it justified to maintain it? / Ventajas e inconvenientes de mantener la obligatoriedad del uso de las mascarillas en centros sanitarios y sociosanitarios en España. ¿Cómo y cuándo está justificado mantenerla?

We address the advantages and disadvantages of main taining the mandatory use of masks in health centers and nursing homes in the current epidemiological situation in Spain and after the declaration of the World Health Organiza tion on May 5, 2023 of the end of COVID-19 as public health emergency. We advocate for prudence and flexibility, respect ing the individual decision to wear a mask and emphasizing the need for its use when symptoms suggestive of a respira tory infection appear, in situations of special vulnerability (such as immunosuppression), or when caring for patients with those infections. At present, given the observed low risk of se vere COVID-19 and the low transmission of other respiratory infections, we believe that it is disproportionate to maintain the mandatory use of masks in a general way in health centers and nursing homes. However, this could change depending on the results of epidemiological surveillance and it would be necessary to reconsider returning to the obligation in periods with a high incidence of respiratory infections (AU)

Abordamos las ventajas e inconvenientes de mantener la obligatoriedad del uso de las mascarillas en centros sani tarios y sociosanitarios en la situación epidemiológica actual de España y tras la declaración de la Organización Mundial de la Salud el 5 de mayo de 2023 del fin de la COVID-19 como emergencia de salud pública. Propugnamos prudencia y flexi bilidad, respetando la decisión individual de usar mascarilla y enfatizando la necesidad de su uso ante la aparición de sín tomas sugestivos de infección respiratoria, en situaciones de especial vulnerabilidad (como inmunodepresión) o al attender pacientes con dichas infecciones. En la actualidad, dado el ba jo riesgo observado de COVID-19 grave y la baja transmisión de otras infecciones respiratorias, creemos que es despropor cionado mantener el uso obligatorio de mascarillas de forma generalizada en centros sanitarios y sociosanitarios. No obs tante, esto podría cambiar en función de los resultados de la vigilancia epidemiológica y habría que reconsiderar volver a la obligatoriedad en periodos con alta incidencia de infecciones respiratorias (AU)

Sound psychometric properties of a short new screening tool for patient safety climate: applying a Rasch model analysis.

BACKGROUND: WHO recommends repeated measurement of patient safety climate in health care and to support monitoring an 11 item questionnaire on sustainable safety engagement (HSE) has been developed by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions. This study aimed to validate the psychometric properties of the HSE. METHODS: Survey responses (n = 761) from a specialist care provider organization in Sweden was used to evaluate psychometric properties of the HSE 11-item questionnaire. A Rasch model analysis was applied in a stepwise process to evaluate evidence of validity and precision/reliability in relation to rating scale functioning, internal structure, response processes, and precision in estimates. RESULTS: Rating scales met the criteria for monotonical advancement and fit. Local independence was demonstrated for all HSE items. The first latent variable explained 52.2% of the variance. The first ten items demonstrated good fit to the Rasch model and were included in the further analysis and calculation of an index measure based on the raw scores. Less than 5% of the respondents demonstrated low person goodness-of-fit. Person separation index > 2. The flooring effect was negligible and the ceiling effect 5.7%. No differential item functioning was shown regarding gender, time of employment, role within organization or employee net promotor scores. The correlation coefficient between the HSE mean value index and the Rasch-generated unidimensional measures of the HSE 10-item scale was r = .95 (p < .01). CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that an eleven-item questionnaire can be used to measure a common dimension of staff perceptions on patient safety. The responses can be used to calculate an index that enables benchmarking and identification of at least three different levels of patient safety climate. This study explores a single point in time, but further studies may support the use of the instrument to follow development of the patient safety climate over time by repeated measurement.

Analysis of Geographic Accessibility of Breast, Lung, and Colorectal Cancer Screening Centers Among American Indian and Alaskan Native Tribes.

PURPOSE: To evaluate geographic accessibility of ACR mammographic screening (MS), lung cancer screening (LCS), and CT colorectal cancer screening (CTCS) centers among US federally recognized American Indian and Alaskan Native (AI/AN) tribes. METHODS: Distances from AI/AN tribes' ZIP codes to their closest ACR-accredited LCS and CTCS centers were recorded using tools from the ACR website. The FDA's database was used for MS. Persistent adult poverty (PPC-A), persistent child poverty (PPC-C), and rurality indexes (rural-urban continuum codes) were from the US Department of Agriculture. Logistic and linear regression analyses were used to assess distances to screening centers and relationships among rurality, PPC-A, and PPC-C. RESULTS: Five hundred ninety-four federally recognized AI/AN tribes met the inclusion criteria. Among all closest MS, LCS, or CTCS center to AI/AN tribes, 77.8% (1,387 of 1,782) were located within 200 miles, with a mean distance of 53.6 ± 53.0 miles. Most tribes (93.6% [557 of 594]) had MS centers within 200 miles, 76.4% (454 of 594) had LCS centers within 200 miles, and 63.5% (376 of 594) had CTCS centers within 200 miles. Counties with PPC-A (odds ratio [OR], 0.47; P < .001) and PPC-C (OR, 0.19; P < .001) were significantly associated with decreased odds of having a cancer screening center within 200 miles. PPC-C was associated with decreased likelihood of having an LCS center (OR, 0.24; P < .001) and an CTCS center (OR, 0.52; P < .001) within the same state as the tribe's location. No significant association was found between PPC-A and PPC-C and MS centers. CONCLUSIONS: AI/AN tribes experience distance barriers to ACR-accredited screening centers, resulting in cancer screening deserts. Programs are needed to increase equity in screening access among AI/AN tribes.

Collective-Documentary of a National Health Care Tragedy.

This Arts and Medicine feature reviews the 2019 movie Collective, which documents corruption underlying poor patient outcomes in the Romanian national health system and provides an update on the people and reform efforts featured in the film.

What Might Be Required for Inspections to Be Considered Fair? Comment on "What Lies Behind Successful Regulation? A Qualitative Evaluation of Pilot Implementation of Kenya's Health Facility Inspection Reforms".

Tama et al offer us an interesting analysis of a piloted regulatory reform that introduced a Joint Health Inspections (JHIs) system in three Kenyan counties. The study highlights key factors facilitating or hindering the implementation of the reform. In this commentary we reflect on the concept of fairness, which is one of the topics that is discussed in the study. We describe four important dimensions of fairness in the context of inspections: expectation clarity, consistency of assessment, consistency of enforcement, and fairness to patients. We argue that all four dimensions are important in the regulatory design, in order for the inspection to be perceived as fair.

Assessing service availability and readiness of healthcare facilities to manage diabetes mellitus in Bangladesh: Findings from a nationwide survey.

INTRODUCTION: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is one of the most prevalent non-communicable diseases (NCDs)as well as a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Around 80% diabetic patients live in low- and middle-income countries. In Bangladesh, there is a scarcity of data on the quality of DM management within health facilities. This study aims to describe service availability and readiness for DM at all tiers of health facilities using the World Health Organization's (WHO) Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) standard tool. METHODS: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in 266 health facilities all across Bangladesh using the WHO SARA standard tool. Descriptive analyses for the availability of DM services was carried out. Composite scores for facility readiness index (RI) were calculated in four domains: staff and guideline, basic equipment, diagnostic capacity, and essential medicines. Indices were stratified by facility level and a cut off value of 70% was considered as 'ready' to manage diabetes at each facility level. RESULTS: The mean RI score of tertiary and specialized hospitals was above the cutoff value of 70% (RI: 79%), whereas for District Hospitals (DHs), Upazila Health Complexes (UHCs) and NGO and Private hospitals the RI scores were other levels of 65%, 51% and 62% respectively. This indicating that only the tertiary level of health facilities was ready to manage DM. However, it has been observed that the RI scores of the essential medicine domain was low at all levels of health facilities including tertiary-level. CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed only tertiary level facilities were ready to manage DM. However, like other facilities, they require an adequate supply of essential medicines. Alongside the inadequate supply of medicines, shortage of trained staff and unavailability of guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of DM also contributed to the low RI score for rest of the facilities.

Health, illness and cancer in Mayotte: Multicultural experiences in a medically underserved French Territory.

The island of Mayotte is part of the French territory and one of the European Union's Outermost Regions but there is a significant lack of data and research on health and cancers in Mayotte. This article reviews the literature on health, disease and cancer in Mayotte, from the perspectives of social science and epidemiology. It starts by shedding light on the specificities of Mahoran demography and society, and shows the healthcare infrastructure is insufficient to meet the population's needs. It then reviews social science studies on health and illness in Mayotte and shows that the political issue of migration permeates the management and the experiences of health on the island. It ends with a focus on the epidemiology of cervical cancer and a review of the available data on screening, treatment and prevention. The article concludes with a quick review of ongoing research and urgently calls for more data and research on this critical public health issue.

Antimicrobial stewardship: Attitudes and practices of healthcare providers in selected health facilities in Uganda.

Though antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programmes are the cornerstone of Uganda's national action plan (NAP) on antimicrobial resistance, there is limited evidence on AMS attitude and practices among healthcare providers in health facilities in Uganda. We determined healthcare providers' AMS attitudes, practices, and associated factors in selected health facilities in Uganda. We conducted a cross-sectional study among nurses, clinical officers, pharmacy technicians, medical officers, pharmacists, and medical specialists in 32 selected health facilities in Uganda. Data were collected once from each healthcare provider in the period from October 2019 to February 2020. Data were collected using an interview-administered questionnaire. AMS attitude and practice were analysed using descriptive statistics, where scores of AMS attitude and practices for healthcare providers were classified into high, fair, and low using a modified Blooms categorisation. Associations of AMS attitude and practice scores were determined using ordinal logistic regression. This study reported estimates of AMS attitude and practices, and odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were reported. We adjusted for clustering at the health facility level using clustered robust standard errors. A total of 582 healthcare providers in 32 healthcare facilities were recruited into the study. More than half of the respondents (58%,340/582) had a high AMS attitude. Being a female (aOR: 0.66, 95% CI: 0.47-0.92, P < 0.016), having a bachelor's degree (aOR: 1.81, 95% CI: 1.24-2.63, P < 0.002) or master's (aOR: 2.06, 95% CI: 1.13-3.75, P < 0.018) were significant predictors of high AMS attitude. Most (46%, 261/582) healthcare providers had fair AMS practices. Healthcare providers in the western region's health facilities were less likely to have a high AMS practice (aOR: 0.52, 95% CI 0.34-0.79, P < 0.002). In this study, most healthcare providers in health facilities had a high AMS attitude and fair AMS practice.

Association of facility type with overall survival in patients with nonsurgically managed pancreatic cancer.

Aim: To investigate the association between receiving treatment at academic centers and overall survival in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients who do not receive definitive surgery of the pancreatic tumor. Methods: Using the National Cancer Database, patients who were diagnosed with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma between 2004 to 2016 were identified. Results: Of 262,209 patients, 101,003 (38.5%) received treatment at academic centers. In the multivariable Cox regression analysis, patients who received treatment at a nonacademic facility had significantly worse overall survival compared with patients who were treated at an academic center (hazard ratio: 1.279; 95% CI: 1.268-1.290; p = 0.001). Conclusion: Compared with treatment at academic centers, treatment at nonacademic centers was associated with significantly worse overall survival in patients with nonsurgically managed pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

The aim of this study is to examine the association between receiving treatment at academic hospitals and overall survival in patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer who do not receive definitive surgery of the pancreatic tumor. The authors used the National Cancer Database to identify patients who were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer between 2004 and 2016. The authors' study included 262,209 patients. The authors found that patients who received treatment at nonacademic hospitals were on average 28% more likely to die of any cause compared with patients who were treated at academic centers (hazard ratio: 1.279; 95% CI: 1.268­1.290; p < 0.001). Patients who received treatment at nonacademic hospitals were more likely to die of any cause compared with patients who received treatment at academic hospitals.

Preparedness of tertiary care hospitals to implement the national TB infection prevention and control guidelines in Bangladesh: A qualitative exploration.

In high tuberculosis (TB) burden countries, health settings, including non-designated TB hospitals, host many patients with pulmonary TB. Bangladesh's National TB Control Program aims to strengthen TB infection prevention and control (IPC) in health settings. However, there has been no published literature to date that assessed the preparedness of hospitals to comply with the recommendations. To address this gap, our study examined healthcare workers knowledge and attitudes towards TB IPC guidelines and their perceptions regarding the hospitals' preparedness in Bangladesh. Between January to December 2019, we conducted 16 key-informant interviews and four focus group discussions with healthcare workers from two public tertiary care hospitals. In addition, we undertook a review of 13 documents [i.e., hospital policy, annual report, staff list, published manuscript]. Our findings showed that healthcare workers acknowledged the TB risk and were willing to implement the TB IPC measures but identified key barriers impacting implementation. Gaps were identified in: policy (no TB policy or guidelines in the hospital), health systems (healthcare workers were unaware of the guidelines, lack of TB IPC program, training and education, absence of healthcare-associated TB infection surveillance, low priority of TB IPC, no TB IPC monitoring and feedback, high patient load and bed occupancy, and limited supply of IPC resources) and behavioural factors (risk perception, compliance, and self and social stigma). The additional service-level gap was the lack of electronic medical record systems. These findings highlighted that while there is a demand amongst healthcare workers to implement TB IPC measures, the public tertiary care hospitals have got key issues to address. Therefore, the National TB Control Program may consider these gaps, provide TB IPC guidelines to these hospitals, assist them in developing hospital-level IPC manual, provide training, and coordinate with the ministry of health to allocate separate budget, staffing, and IPC resources to implement the control measures successfully.

"Even though they insult us, the delivery they give us is the greatest thing": a qualitative study contextualizing women's experiences with facility-based maternal health care in Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Globally, amidst increased utilization of facility-based maternal care services, there is continued need to better understand women's experience of care in places of birth. Quantitative surveys may not sufficiently characterize satisfaction with maternal healthcare (MHC) in local context, limiting their interpretation and applicability. The purpose of this study is to untangle how contextual and cultural expectations shape women's care experience and what women mean by satisfaction in two Ethiopian regions. METHODS: Health center and hospital childbirth care registries were used to identify and interview 41 women who had delivered a live newborn within a six-month period. We used a semi-structured interview guide informed by the Donabedian framework to elicit women's experiences with MHC and delivery, any prior delivery experiences, and recommendations to improve MHC. We used an inductive analytical approach to compare and contrast MHC processes, experiences, and satisfaction. RESULTS: Maternal and newborn survival and safety were central to women's descriptions of their MHC experiences. Women nearly exclusively described healthy and safe deliveries with healthy outcomes as 'satisfactory'. The texture behind this 'satisfaction', however, was shaped by what mothers bring to their delivery experiences, creating expectations from events including past births, experiences with antenatal care, and social and community influences. Secondary to the absence of adverse outcomes, health provider's interpersonal behaviors (e.g., supportive communication and behavioral demonstrations of commitment to their births) and the facility's amenities (e.g., bathing, cleaning, water, coffee, etc) enhanced women's experiences. Finally, at the social and community levels, we found that family support and material resources may significantly buffer against negative experiences and facilitate women's overall satisfaction, even in the context of poor-quality facilities and limited resources. CONCLUSION: Our findings highlight the importance of understanding contextual factors including past experiences, expectations, and social support that influence perceived quality of MHC and the agency a woman has to negotiate her care experience. Our finding that newborn and maternal survival primarily drove women's satisfaction suggests that quantitative assessments conducted shortly following delivery may be overly influenced by these outcomes and not fully capture the complexity of women's care experience.

Timely initiation of antenatal care and its associated factors among pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa: A multicountry analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys.

BACKGROUND: Timely initiation of antenatal care (ANC) is an important component of ANC services that improve the health of the mother and the newborn. Mothers who begin attending ANC in a timely manner, can fully benefit from preventive and curative services. However, evidence in sub-Saharan Africa (sSA) indicated that the majority of pregnant mothers did not start their first visit timely. As our search concerned, there is no study that incorporates a large number of sub-Saharan Africa countries. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of timely initiation of ANC and its associated factors in 36 sSA countries. METHODS: The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) of 36 sSA countries were used for the analysis. The total weighted sample of 233,349 women aged 15-49 years who gave birth in the five years preceding the survey and who had ANC visit for their last child were included. A multi-level logistic regression model was used to examine the individual and community-level factors that influence the timely initiation of ANC. Results were presented using adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: In this study, overall timely initiation of ANC visit was 38.0% (95% CI: 37.8-38.2), ranging from 14.5% in Mozambique to 68.6% in Liberia. In the final multilevel logistic regression model:- women with secondary education (AOR = 1.08; 95% CI: 1.06, 1.11), higher education (AOR = 1.43; 95% CI: 1.36, 1.51), women aged 25-34 years (AOR = 1.20; 95% CI: 1.17, 1.23), ≥35 years (AOR = 1.30; 95% CI: 1.26, 1.35), women from richest household (AOR = 1.19; 95% CI: 1.14, 1.22), women perceiving distance from the health facility as not a big problem (AOR = 1.05; 95%CI: 1.03, 1.07), women exposed to media (AOR = 1.29; 95%CI: 1.26, 1.32), women living in communities with medium percentage of literacy (AOR = 1.51; 95%CI: 1.40, 1.63), and women living in communities with high percentage of literacy (AOR = 1.56; 95%CI: 1.38, 1.76) were more likely to initiate ANC timely. However, women who wanted their pregnancy later (AOR = 0.84; 95%CI: 0.82, 0.86), wanted no more pregnancy (AOR = 0.80; 95%CI: 0.77, 0.83), and women residing in the rural area (AOR = 0.90; 95%CI: 0.87, 0.92) were less likely to initiate ANC timely. CONCLUSION: Even though the WHO recommends all women initiate ANC within 12 weeks of gestation, sSA recorded a low overall prevalence of timely initiation of ANC. Maternal education, pregnancy intention, residence, age, wealth status, media exposure, distance from health facility, and community-level literacy were significantly associated with timely initiation of ANC. Therefore, intervention efforts should focus on the identified factors in order to improve timely initiation of ANC in sSA. This can be done through the providing information and education to the community on the timing and importance of attending antenatal care and family planning to prevent unwanted pregnancy, especially in rural settings.