Promoting Child Growth and Development in the Sustainable Development Goals Era: Is It Time for New Thinking?

Growth monitoring and promotion (GMP) programs have been implemented worldwide for decades. Consistent evidence of their effectiveness is lacking and complicated by design and operational differences. Nevertheless, tracking child growth and development is a fundamental component of routine preventive child health care, and governments in 178 countries implement some form of GMP. This article makes the point that despite implementation challenges, there is a compelling need for GMP. It enables a crucial dialogue with families and communities about how to support the healthy growth and development of their children and can be a powerful tool for stimulating action and accountability for child nutrition and development at household, community, subnational, and national levels. We propose that GMP deserves a fresh rethink, with a paradigm shift that tailors GMP programs and activities for different development, geographic, and cultural contexts and considers how to optimize implementation for scalability.

The Trach Safe Initiative: A Quality Improvement Initiative to Reduce Mortality among Pediatric Tracheostomy Patients.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the Trach Safe Initiative and assess its impact on unanticipated tracheostomy-related mortality in outpatient tracheostomy-dependent children (TDC). METHODS: An interdisciplinary team including parents and providers designed the initiative with quality improvement methods. Three practice changes were prioritized: (1) surveillance airway endoscopy prior to hospital discharge from tracheostomy placement, (2) education for community-based nurses on TDC-focused emergency airway management, and (3) routine assessment of airway events for TDC in clinic. The primary outcome was annual unanticipated mortality after hospital discharge from tracheostomy placement before and after the initiative. RESULTS: In the 5 years before and after the initiative, 131 children and 155 children underwent tracheostomy placement, respectively. At the end of the study period, the institution sustained Trach Safe practices: (1) surveillance bronchoscopies increased from 104 to 429 bronchoscopies, (2) the course trained 209 community-based nurses, and (3) the survey was used in 488 home ventilator clinic visits to identify near-miss airway events. Prior to the initiative, 9 deaths were unanticipated. After Trach Safe implementation, 1 death was unanticipated. Control chart analysis demonstrates significant special-cause variation in reduced unanticipated mortality. DISCUSSION: We describe a system shift in reduced unanticipated mortality for TDC through 3 major practice changes of the Trach Safe Initiative. IMPLICATION FOR PRACTICE: Death in a child with a tracheostomy tube at home may represent modifiable tracheostomy-related airway events. Using Trach Safe practices, we address multiple facets to improve safety of TDC out of the hospital.

Surveillance endoscopy after tracheostomy placement in children: Findings and interventions.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: The Seattle Children's Hospital implemented the Trach Safe Initiative to improve airway safety in tracheostomy-dependent children (TDC). A key tenet of this initiative is surveillance endoscopy. The objectives of this study were to describe the prevalence of abnormal airway changes in TDC, identify risk factors for these changes, and describe the frequency of airway interventions. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective case series. METHODS: This is a review of children 0 to 21 years old who underwent tracheostomy and surveillance endoscopy from February 1, 2014 to January 1, 2019. Descriptive statistics were used to report the prevalence of abnormal airway changes and interventions following tracheostomy. Pearson χ2 tests and logistic regression were used to identify risk factors for the development of abnormal changes. RESULTS: There were 127 children identified. The median time from tracheostomy to initial surveillance endoscopy was 1.6 months (interquartile range = 1.3-2.4 months). At initial endoscopy, 86.6% of patients had at least one abnormal airway finding. The most common findings were subglottic edema/stenosis (57.3%), glottic edema (37.3%), and suprastomal granulation tissue (31.8%). Prematurity and a history of failed extubations were significantly associated with abnormal findings on endoscopy (odds ratio [OR] = 7.2, P = .01 and OR = 4.1, P = .03, respectively). Of those with abnormal findings, 32.7% underwent an intervention to improve airway patency and safety. The most common interventions performed were suprastomal granuloma excision (44.4%), steroid injection (22.2%), and balloon dilation of the glottis or subglottis (19.4%). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of early abnormal airway changes in TDC is high, particularly in young children with a history of prematurity and failed extubation. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4 Laryngoscope, 130:1327-1332, 2020.

Women's perceptions of iron deficiency and anemia prevention and control in eight developing countries.

The World Health Organization estimates that 58% of pregnant women in developing countries are anemic. In spite of the fact that most ministries of health in developing countries have policies to provide pregnant women with iron in a supplement form, maternal anemia prevalence has not declined significantly where large-scale programs have been evaluated. During the period 1991-98, the MotherCare Project and its partners conducted qualitative research to determine the major barriers and facilitators of iron supplementation programs for pregnant women in eight developing countries. Research results were used to develop pilot program strategies and interventions to reduce maternal anemia. Across-region results were examined and some differences were found but the similarity in the way women view anemia and react to taking iron tablets was more striking than differences encountered by region, country or ethnic group. While women frequently recognize symptoms of anemia, they do not know the clinical term for anemia. Half of women in all countries consider these symptoms to be a priority health concern that requires action and half do not. Those women who visit prenatal health services are often familiar with iron supplements, but commonly do not know why they are prescribed. Contrary to the belief that women stop taking iron tablets mainly due to negative side effects, only about one-third of women reported that they experienced negative side effects in these studies. During iron supplementation trials in five of the countries, only about one-tenth of the women stopped taking the tablets due to side effects. The major barrier to effective supplementation programs is inadequate supply. Additional barriers include inadequate counseling and distribution of iron tablets, difficult access and poor utilization of prenatal health care services, beliefs against consuming medications during pregnancy, and in most countries, fears that taking too much iron may cause too much blood or a big baby, making delivery more difficult. Facilitators include women's recognition of improved physical well being with the alleviation of symptoms of anemia, particularly fatigue, a better appetite, increased appreciation of benefits for the fetus, and subsequent increased demand for prevention and treatment of iron deficiency and anemia.