1. Health workers' perspectives on the quality of maternal and newborn health care around the time of childbirth: Results of the Improving MAternal Newborn carE in the EURO Region (IMAgiNE EURO) project in 12 countries of the World Health Organization European Region.
- Author
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Valente EP, Mariani I, Bomben A, Morano S, Gemperle M, Otelea MR, Miani C, Elden H, Sarantaki A, Costa R, Baranowska B, König-Bachmann M, Kongslien S, Drandić D, Rozée V, Nespoli A, Abderhalden-Zellweger A, Nanu I, Batram-Zantvoort S, Linden K, Metallinou D, Dias H, Tataj-Puzyna U, D'Costa E, Nedberg IH, Kurbanović M, de La Rochebrochard E, Fumagalli S, Grylka-Baeschlin S, Handra CM, Zaigham M, Orovou E, Barata C, Szlendak B, Zenzmaier C, Vik ES, Liepinaitienė A, Drglin Z, Arendt M, Sacks E, and Lazzerini M
- Subjects
- Adult, Female, Humans, Infant, Newborn, Pregnancy, Cross-Sectional Studies, Europe, Parturition, Quality Improvement, Quality of Health Care, Surveys and Questionnaires, World Health Organization, Attitude of Health Personnel, Health Personnel, Maternal-Child Health Services
- Abstract
Background: Health workers' (HWs') perspectives on the quality of maternal and newborn care (QMNC) are not routinely collected. In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to document HWs' perspectives on QMNC around childbirth in 12 World Health Organization (WHO) European countries., Methods: HWs involved in maternal/neonatal care for at least one year between March 2020 and March 2023 answered an online validated WHO standards-based questionnaire collecting 40 quality measures for improving QMNC. A QMNC index (score 0-400) was calculated as a synthetic measure., Results: Data from 4143 respondents were analysed. For 39 out of 40 quality measures, at least 20% of HWs reported a 'need for improvement', with large variations across countries. Effective training on healthy women/newborns management (n = 2748, 66.3%), availability of informed consent job aids (n = 2770, 66.9%), and effective training on women/newborns rights (n = 2714, 65.5%) presented the highest proportion of HWs stating 'need for improvement'. Overall, 64.8% (n = 2684) of respondents declared that HWs' numbers were insufficient for appropriate care (66.3% in Portugal and 86.6% in Poland), and 22.4% described staff censorship (16.3% in Germany and 56.7% in Poland). The reported QMNC index was low in all countries (Poland median (MD) = 210.60, interquartile range (IQR) = 155.71, 273.57; Norway MD = 277.86; IQR = 244.32, 308.30). The 'experience of care' domain presented in eight countries had significantly lower scores than the other domains (P < 0.001). Over time, there was a significant monthly linear decrease in the QMNC index (P < 0.001), lacking correlation with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic trends (P > 0.05). Multivariate analyses confirmed large QMNC variation by country. HWs with <10 years of experience, HWs from public facilities, and midwives rated QMNC with significantly lower scores (P < 0.001)., Conclusions: HWs from 12 European countries reported significant gaps in QMNC, lacking association with COVID-19 pandemic trends. Routine monitoring of QMNC and tailored actions are needed to improve health services for the benefit of both users and providers., Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04847336., Competing Interests: Disclosure of interests: The authors completed the ICMJE Disclosure of Interest Form (available upon request from the corresponding author) and disclose no relevant interests., (Copyright © 2024 by the Journal of Global Health. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2024
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