Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH
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Trop. Med. Int. Health · Jan 2014
Measuring disparities in sanitation access: does the measure matter?
Initiatives to monitor progress in health interventions like sanitation are increasingly focused on disparities in access. We explored three methodological challenges to monitoring changes in sanitation coverage across socio-economic and demographic determinants: (i) confounding by wealth indices including water and sanitation assets, (ii) use of individual urban and rural settings versus national wealth indices and (iii) child-level versus household-level analyses. ⋯ Standard asset indices provide a reasonably robust measure of disparities in improved sanitation, although overestimation is possible. Separate setting wealth quintiles reveal important disparities in urban areas, but analysis of setting quintiles using a national index is sufficient. Estimates and disparities in household-level coverage of improved sanitation can underestimate coverage for children under five.
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Trop. Med. Int. Health · Jan 2014
Review Meta AnalysisSystematic review of the proportion of pregnancy-related deaths attributed to HIV in population-based studies in sub-Saharan Africa.
To estimate the proportion of pregnancy-related deaths attributed to HIV in population-based studies in sub-Saharan Africa, and to document the methods used to make such attribution. ⋯ The proportion of pregnancy-related/maternal deaths attributed to HIV is substantially lower than modelled estimates, but comparisons are hampered by the absence of standard approaches. Clear guidelines on how to classify pregnancy-related deaths as attributable to HIV are urgently needed, so that the effect of the HIV epidemic on pregnancy-related mortality can be monitored and action taken accordingly.