Quality of care and its effects on utilisation of maternity services at health centre level.

OBJECTIVE: To determine antenatal attendance and place of delivery of women in Chilomoni health centre catchment area and how they perceived the quality of health care provided at the health centre. DESIGN: A cross-sectional household survey. SUBJECTS: Women aged between fifteen and forty nine years, who had delivered at least one child, and had stayed in Chilomoni health centre catchment area during the past five years. RESULTS: Of the 1108 women interviewed, 52% reported for antenatal care at the health centre, but only eight per cent used it for delivery. Reasons for not using the health centre were mainly family refusal and poor facilities at the health centre (68%). On the quality of care, 97% were satisfied with the providers' attitudes, 91% with communication, 86% with the providers technical competence in general, 97% with working hours, but only 37% were satisfied with privacy. Only four per cent were satisfied with the supply of drugs. Variables independently associated with non use of the health centre were: lack of drugs (OR 2.8, p = 001), poor ambulance service (OR 2.4, p = 0.03), poor laboratory services (OR 1.7, p = 0.001), long waiting time (OR 1.6, p = 0.02) and lack of privacy (OR 1.5, p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: Few women use Chilomoni health centre for antenatal services and still fewer use it for delivery. Reasons for not using the health centre included refusal by the family members and the poor facilities at the health centre. We recommend that the facilities at Chilomoni health centre be improved immediately.

Validation of the WHO diagnostic algorithm and development of an alternative scoring system for the management of women presenting with vaginal discharge in Malawi.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the performance of the WHO algorithm for the detection of cervical infection in women presenting with vaginal discharge and modify the risk assessment score for optimum effectiveness in Malawi. METHODS: 550 consecutive women presenting with non-ulcerative genitourinary complaints were interviewed and examined. Cervical infection was defined as presence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae on culture and/or Chlamydia trachomatis by EIA. Other laboratory investigations included wet mount microscopy, serology for syphilis and HIV, LED testing of cervical and vaginal secretions, and pH testing of vaginal fluid. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive values (PPV) of different algorithms were determined in the analysis. RESULTS: Cervical infection was identified in 19.5% of women (17.1% gonorrhoea, 3.7% chlamydial infection). The sensitivity/specificity/PPV of the WHO risk assessment were 43%/73%/28%, respectively by history and 62%/61%/27% with the addition of speculum examination. Using Malawi results to modify the risk assessment improved the performance to 61%/68%/31% respectively by history alone, which increased to 73%/64%/33% with bimanual examination and 72%/56%/29% with speculum examination. CONCLUSION: The sensitivity of the WHO risk assessment is low for the detection of cervical infection in Malawi. Although the Malawi risk assessment performed somewhat better on history alone, this study identified external and bimanual examination variables that improved the diagnostic performance of the algorithm in settings where speculum examination is not possible. Although the PPVs of the algorithms are low, country specific risk assessments can provide a framework for management until simple, affordable diagnostic tests for the definitive diagnosis of cervical infection are available.

Characteristics and sexual behaviour of individuals attending the sexually transmitted diseases clinic at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital Blantyre, Malawi.

Characteristics and sexual behaviour, knowledge of HIV and knowledge of attitudes to and use of the condom were assessed by a questionnaire survey of a sample of 734 patients attending a sexually transmitted diseases clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi. The male respondents had a mean age of 27.4 years compared with 24.5 for the women. Nearly two thirds of either sex reported more than one sexual partner during the previous year. Thirty one percent of the females and 43% of the males admitted having ever exchanged money directly for sex. Knowledge about HIV transmission and prevention, and the condom was generally good. Only 24% male and 45% female respondents reported having ever used the condom, with 27% and 43% respectively using it sometimes. No respondent used the condom always. The most common reported reason for not using the condom was partner refusal. Many of the respondents exhibited a high level of HIV risk behaviour.

Intention to deliver and delivery outcome

The labour outcome of the mothers who delivered at the Health Centre was not very different from that of the mothers who delivered at home. Whilst it was very encouraging to note that the majority of the mothers desired to deliver at the Health Centre; the lack of actually delivering at the Health Centre was very much in evidence

Knowledge of HIV and condom use among heterosexual patients at a Glasgow genito-urinary medicine clinic.

Knowledge of HIV and knowledge of, attitudes to and use of the condom were assessed by a survey of a sample of 778 heterosexual patients attending the genito-urinary medicine clinic at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. The mean age was 27.4 years for men and 24.5 years for women. Over two-thirds of the men and about half of the women reported more than one sexual partner during the previous year. More than 70% reported having intercourse at least three times each week. Knowledge about HIV transmission and the condom was generally good. Over three quarters of the respondents approved of the use of the condom. However, only 27% male and 24% female respondents reported using the condom, with 11% and 8% respectively using it always. Condom use was associated with a positive attitude to the condom, having received information from the media about the condom, educational status, a belief that condoms prevented sexually transmitted diseases, and having had sex education in school. It was unrelated to age, marital status, the number of sexual partners or the frequency of sexual intercourse. The most common reported reason for not using the condom was use of another form of contraceptive.

PIP: Knowledge of HIV and knowledge of, attitudes towards, and use of the condom were assessed by a survey which sampled 778 heterosexual patients who attended the genitourinary medicine clinic at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. The mean age was 27.4 years for men and 24.5 years for women. Over 2/3 of the men and about 1/2 of the women reported more than 1 sexual partner during the previous year. More than 70% reported having intercourse at least 3 times/week. Knowledge concerning HIV transmission and the condom was generally good. Over 3/4 of those responding approved of condom use. However, only 27% of the male and 24% of the female respondents reported actual condom use, with 11% and 8%, respectively, using it consistently. Condom use was associated with a positive attitude towards the condom, with having received information from the media about the condom, with educational status, with a belief that condoms prevented sexually transmitted diseases, and with having had sex education in school. It was not related to age, marital status, number of sexual partners, or frequency of sexual intercourse. The most commonly reported reason for not using the condom was the use of another form of contraceptive.

Sexual behaviour and use of the condom among Ugandan students.

HIV infection is widespread in Uganda. Have its university students, the country's leaders of tomorrow, taken appropriate action? A questionnaire was completed by 661 men and 270 women in a one-in-four sample of Makerere University undergraduates (93% response rate). More than 60% of the men and 36% of the women reported at least two sexual partners in the past year. Over 18% of respondents reported at least one episode of sexually transmitted disease in the past year. Most respondents correctly identified the main routes of HIV transmission but risk was also often incorrectly associated with non-penetrative sex. Only a minority saw the condom as an effective preventive method: most saw it as unsafe or an encouragement to promiscuity. Condoms had been used by 35% of men and 24% of women but were currently always used by only 9% of men and 11% of women. The condom was approved of by only one quarter of respondents. Condom use increased with the number of sexual partners but was less likely if the respondent had seen official publicity about the condom. Whilst there were some encouraging signs of behaviour change, opportunities for the spread of HIV continued to abound in this important group. More positive promotion of the condom is urgently required.