Evolution in key indicators of maternal and child health across the wealth gradient in 41 Sub-Saharan African countries, 1986–2019

This article submitted to the BMC Medicine Article, Vol. 22. No. 21of 2024.

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Main Author: Sesabo, Jennifer K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC Medicine 2024
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Online Access:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12916-023-03183-0
https://scholar.mzumbe.ac.tz/handle/123456789/737
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author Sesabo, Jennifer K.
author_facet Sesabo, Jennifer K.
author_sort Sesabo, Jennifer K.
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description This article submitted to the BMC Medicine Article, Vol. 22. No. 21of 2024.
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spelling oai:41.59.85.69:123456789-7372024-09-18T08:43:34Z Evolution in key indicators of maternal and child health across the wealth gradient in 41 Sub-Saharan African countries, 1986–2019 Sesabo, Jennifer K. Maternal and child health Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) Maternal Health Sub-Saharan African countries This article submitted to the BMC Medicine Article, Vol. 22. No. 21of 2024. Aggregate trends can be useful for summarizing large amounts of information, but this can obscure important distributional aspects. Some population subgroups can be worse off even as averages climb, for example. Distributional information can identify health inequalities, which is essential to understanding their drivers and possible remedies. Methods Using publicly available Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from 41 sub-Saharan African countries from 1986 to 2019, we analyzed changes in coverage for eight key maternal and child health indicators: first dose of measles vaccine (MCV1); Diphtheria-Pertussis-Tetanus (DPT) first dose (DPT1); DPT third dose (DPT3); care-seeking for diarrhea, acute respiratory infections (ARI), or fever; skilled birth attendance (SBA); and having four antenatal care (ANC) visits. To evaluate whether coverage diverged or converged over time across the wealth gradient, we computed several dispersion metrics including the coefficient of variation across wealth quintiles. Slopes and 5-year moving averages were computed to identify overall long-term trends. Results Average coverage increased for all quintiles and indicators, although the range and the speed at which they increased varied widely. There were small changes in the wealth-related gap for SBA, ANC, and fever. The wealth-related gap of vaccination-related indicators (DPT1, DPT3, MCV1) decreased over time. Compared to 2017, the wealth-gap between richest and poorest quintiles in 1995 was 7 percentage points larger for ANC and 17 percentage points larger for measles vaccination. Conclusions Maternal and child health indicators show progress, but the distributional effects show differential evolutions in inequalities. Several reasons may explain why countries had smaller wealth-related gap trends in vaccination-related indicators compared to others. In addition to service delivery differences, we hypothesize that the allocation of development assistance for health, the prioritization of vaccine-preventable diseases on the global agenda, and indirect effects of structural adjustment programs on health system-related indicators might have played a role. Private 2024-05-09T10:12:48Z 2024-05-09T10:12:48Z 2024 Article APA https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12916-023-03183-0 https://scholar.mzumbe.ac.tz/handle/123456789/737 en application/pdf BMC Medicine
spellingShingle Maternal and child health
Demographic and Health Survey (DHS)
Maternal Health
Sub-Saharan African countries
Sesabo, Jennifer K.
Evolution in key indicators of maternal and child health across the wealth gradient in 41 Sub-Saharan African countries, 1986–2019
title Evolution in key indicators of maternal and child health across the wealth gradient in 41 Sub-Saharan African countries, 1986–2019
title_full Evolution in key indicators of maternal and child health across the wealth gradient in 41 Sub-Saharan African countries, 1986–2019
title_fullStr Evolution in key indicators of maternal and child health across the wealth gradient in 41 Sub-Saharan African countries, 1986–2019
title_full_unstemmed Evolution in key indicators of maternal and child health across the wealth gradient in 41 Sub-Saharan African countries, 1986–2019
title_short Evolution in key indicators of maternal and child health across the wealth gradient in 41 Sub-Saharan African countries, 1986–2019
title_sort evolution in key indicators of maternal and child health across the wealth gradient in 41 sub saharan african countries 1986 2019
topic Maternal and child health
Demographic and Health Survey (DHS)
Maternal Health
Sub-Saharan African countries
url https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12916-023-03183-0
https://scholar.mzumbe.ac.tz/handle/123456789/737
work_keys_str_mv AT sesabojenniferk evolutioninkeyindicatorsofmaternalandchildhealthacrossthewealthgradientin41subsaharanafricancountries19862019