User charges in public health facilities are aimed at improving efficiency and quality of health services. In Africa, evidence about their effect on patient attendance and community health-seeking behaviour are mixed. This paper reports a study of the effect of user charges on revenue collection, quality of services and people's health-seeking behaviour in relation to malaria in Korogwe distric...

Background For exploring maternal death, supply and demand-side factors can be characterized by the three delays model developed by Thaddeus and Maine (1994). The model comprises delay in deciding to seek care (delay 1), delay in reaching the health facility (delay 2), and delay in receiving quality care once at the health facility (delay 3). Few studies have comprehensively dealt with the heal...

Accurate knowledge of the characteristics of the health labour force that can affect health care production is of critical importance to health planners and policymakers. This study uses health facility survey data to examine characteristics of the primary health care labour force in Nicaragua, Tanzania and Bangladesh. The characteristics examined are those that are likely to affect service pro...

INTRODUCTION Kenya records a high maternal mortality ratio 362 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births. Tharaka Sub County has poor transport infrastructure, low levels of socio-economic status and long distances to health facilities. Secondary to these factors, delivering in a health facility is a challenge. Delivering in a health facility is one of the strategies to avert maternal death throu...

OBJECTIVE To identify the determinants and measure the trends in health facility-based deliveries and caesarean sections among married adolescent girls in Bangladesh. METHODS In order to measure the trends in health facility-based deliveries and caesarean sections, Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey (BDHS) data sets were analysed (BDHS; 1993-1994, 1996-1997, 1999-2000, 2004, 2007, 2011). Th...

Application uptime is critical to every administrator. The factors which cause system downtime are often handled by the operating system, but causes for application faults (e.g., software bugs, hardware faults, or human errors) are not addressed by standard system software. Recovery is left to humans, who may often compound the problem due to misdiagnosis or simple error. While availability iss...

introduction: disasters are always challenging to hospital managers as they give rise to critical conditions. from all natural disasters occurring in the world, 31 have happened in iran, giving the country a high global rank in this regard. therefore it seems necessary for hospitals to adopt contingency plans. this study aimed to assess the level of preparedness of hospitals affiliated to shira...

BACKGROUND High attrition is a common problem for weight loss programs and directly affects program effectiveness. Since 2006, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has offered obesity treatment to its beneficiaries through the MOVE! Weight Management Program for Veterans (MOVE!). An early evaluation of this program showed that attrition rate was high. The present study examines how individu...

BACKGROUND Research in areas of low skilled attendant coverage found that maternal mortality is paradoxically higher in women who seek obstetric care. We estimated the effect of health-facility admission on maternal survival, and how this effect varies with skilled attendant coverage across India. METHODS/FINDINGS Using unmatched population-based case-control analysis of national datasets, we...

This study was conducted in Mwanza district in southern Malawi with the aim of investigating the individual's, community's and health workers' perception of male involvement in maternal health care. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were the methods used for data collection. The participants' responses generated two main themes namely male involvement in health facility care and o...