PLoS medicine
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Comparative Study
Intimate partner femicide in South Africa in 1999 and 2009.
Death is the most extreme consequence of intimate partner violence. Female homicide studies with data on the perpetrator-victim relationship can provide insights. We compare the results of two South African national studies of female homicide with similar sampling done 10 y apart. ⋯ Female homicide in South Africa was lower in 2009 than 1999, but intimate partner femicide and suspected rape homicide rates were not statistically different. The cause of the difference is unknown. The findings suggest that South Africa needs greater efforts nationally to implement evidence-based violence prevention. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary.
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Agnes Binagwaho and colleagues describe Rwanda's experience of pharmacovigilance for malaria and tuberculosis, and call for a global treaty and leadership by the World Health Organization to address the global manufacture and trade in substandard and falsified medicines. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary
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Comment
Irreconcilable conflict: the tobacco industry and the public health challenge of tobacco use.
Thomas Novotny reflects on new research by Stanton Glantz and colleagues and the implications of their findings for engaging the tobacco industry on tobacco product regulation.
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Review Comparative Study
Measuring coverage in MNCH: tracking progress in health for women and children using DHS and MICS household surveys.
Household surveys are the primary data source of coverage indicators for children and women for most developing countries. Most of this information is generated by two global household survey programmes-the USAID-supported Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and the UNICEF-supported Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). In this review, we provide an overview of these two programmes, which cover a wide range of child and maternal health topics and provide estimates of many Millennium Development Goal indicators, as well as estimates of the indicators for the Countdown to 2015 initiative and the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health. ⋯ These differences need to be considered when comparing estimates of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health indicators across countries and over time and we discuss the implications of these differences for coverage measurement. Finally, we discuss the need for survey planners and consumers of survey results to understand the strengths, limitations, and constraints of coverage measurements generated through household surveys, and address some technical issues surrounding sampling and quality control. We conclude that, although much effort has been made to improve coverage measurement in household surveys, continuing efforts are needed, including further research to improve and refine survey methods and analytical techniques.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Effect of Facilitation of Local Maternal-and-Newborn Stakeholder Groups on Neonatal Mortality: Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.
Facilitation of local women's groups may reportedly reduce neonatal mortality. It is not known whether facilitation of groups composed of local health care staff and politicians can improve perinatal outcomes. We hypothesised that facilitation of local stakeholder groups would reduce neonatal mortality (primary outcome) and improve maternal, delivery, and newborn care indicators (secondary outcomes) in Quang Ninh province, Vietnam. ⋯ A randomized facilitation intervention with local stakeholder groups composed of primary care staff and local politicians working for three years with a perinatal problem-solving approach resulted in increased attendance to antenatal care and reduced neonatal mortality after a latent period.