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Background: Up to 1.45 billion people currently suffer from soil transmitted helminth infection, with the largest burden occurring in Africa and Asia. Safe and cost effective deworming treatment exists, but there is a debate about mass distribution of this treatment in high prevalence settings. While the World Health Organization recommends mass administration of anthelmintic drugs for preschool and school-aged children in high (>20%) prevalence settings, and several long run follow up studies of an influential trial have suggested large benefits that persist over time, recent systematic reviews have called this recommendation into question. Methods and findings: This paper analyzes the long-term impact of a cluster-randomized trial in eastern Uganda that provided mass deworming treatment to preschool aged children from 2000 to 2003 on the numeracy and literacy skills of children and young adults living in those villages in 2010-2015. This study uses numeracy and literacy data collected seven to twelve years after the end of the deworming trial in a randomly selected subset of communities from the original trial, by an education-focused survey that had no relationship to the deworming study. Building on an earlier working paper which used data from 2010 and 2011 survey rounds, this paper uses an additional four years of numeracy and literacy data (2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015). Aggregating data from all survey rounds, the difference between numeracy scores in treatment versus control communities is 0.07 standard deviations (SD) (95% CI -0.10, 0.24, p = 0.40), the difference in literacy scores is 0.05 SD (95% CI -0.16, 0.27, p = 0.62), and the difference in total scores is 0.07 SD (95% CI -0.11, 0.25, p = 0.44). There are significant differences in program impact by gender, with numeracy and literacy differentially positively affected for girls, and by age, with treatment effects larger for the primary school aged subsample. There are also significant treatment interactions for those living in households with more treatment-eligible children. There is no evidence of differential treatment effects on age at program eligibility or number of years of program eligibility. Conclusions: Mass deworming of preschool aged children in high prevalence communities in Uganda resulted in no statistically significant gains in numeracy or literacy 7-12 years after program completion. Point estimates were positive but imprecise; the study lacked sufficient power to rule out substantial positive effects or more modest negative effects. However, there is suggestive evidence that deworming was relatively more beneficial for girls, primary school aged children, and children living in households with other treated children. Research approval: As this analysis was conducted on secondary data which is publicly available, no research approval was sought or received. All individual records were anonymized by the data provider prior to public release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A community’s cultural beliefs, attitudes and discourse can affect their responses in surveys. Knowledge of these cultural factors and how to comply with them or adjust for them during data collection can improve data quality. Objective: This study describes implications of features of Gambian culture related to women’s reproductive health, and mortality, when collecting data in surveys. Methods: 13 in-depth interviews of female interviewers and a focus group discussion among male interviewers were conducted in two rural health and demographic surveillance systems as well as three key informant interviews in three regions in The Gambia. Results: From the fieldworker’s viewpoint, questions relating to reproduction were best asked by women as culturally pregnancies should be concealed, and menstruation is considered a sensitive topic. Gambians were reluctant to speak about decedents and the Fula did not like to be counted, potentially affecting estimation of mortality. Asking about siblings proved problematic among the Fula and Serahule communities. Proposals made to overcome these challenges were that culturally-appropriate metaphors and symbols should be used to discuss sensitive matters and to enumerating births/deaths singly instead of collecting summary totals, which had threatening connotations. This was as opposed to training interviewers to ask standardised and precise verbatim questions. Contribution: This paper presents indigenous Gambian solutions by fieldworkers to culturally sensitive topics when collecting pregnancy outcomes and mortality data in demographic and health surveys. For researchers collecting maternal mortality data, it highlights the potential shortcomings of the sibling history methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The population of Ghana is increasingly becoming urbanized with about 70% of the estimated 27 million people living in urban and peri-urban areas. Nonetheless, eight out of the ten regions in Ghana remain predominantly rural where only 32% of the national health sector workforce works. Moreover, the rural-urban disparities in the density of health tutors (staff responsible for pre-service training of health professionals) are enormous. This paper explores perceived needs of health tutors in rural and urban health training institutions in Ghana. Methods: This is a descriptive qualitative study conducted in the Greater Accra and Northern regions of Ghana. The Study used the deductive thematic and sub-thematic analysis approaches. Five health training institutions were randomly sampled, and 72 tutors engaged in separate focus group discussions with an average size of 14 participants per group in each training institution. Results: Perceived rural-urban disparities among health tutors were found in the payment of extra duty allowances; school infrastructure including libraries and internet connectivity; staff accommodation; and opportunities for scholarships and higher education. Health tutors in rural areas generally expressed more frustration with these work conditions than those in urban areas. Conclusions: There is the need to initiate and sustain work incentives that promote motivation of rural health tutors to control ongoing rural-urban migration of qualified staff. It is recommended the following incentives be prioritized to promote retention of qualified health tutors in rural health training schools: payment of research, book and rural allowances; early promotion of rural staff; prioritizing rural tutors for scholarships, and introduction of national best health tutor awards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a novel laboratory experiment to document the pressure to share income within social networks in Africa. We find that the redistributive pressure exerted via the possibility of receiving a claim increases altruism, while the possibility of hiding from such claim reduces it. Our results indicate that sharing norms are crucial drivers of giving to other members of the network. We also find that pressure to share has a detrimental effect on the undertaking of profitable but risky investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender diversity is known to have a positive effect on innovation in developed countries. However, it is unclear whether the benefits of gender diversity for innovation also apply to the particular context of developing countries, which is characterized by diverse and lower levels of gender equality. We propose that gender diversity positively impacts innovation in the developing countries participating in our study. In addition, we expect that this effect is moderated by country-specific levels of gender equality. In a cross-country study covering 18,547 firms in 15 developing countries, we find that gender diversity among a firm’s owners and workforce as well as having a female top manager benefit innovation in developing countries. Yet, contradictory to our expectations, gender equality does not significantly moderate this relationship. As such, our results underline the importance of enabling and fostering gender diversity and have critical implications for firms and policy makers alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Some studies in developing countries have shown that infant mortality is highly associated with maternal education, implying that maternal education might play an important role in the reduction of infant mortality. However, other research has shown that lower levels of maternal education does not have any significant contribution to infant survival. In this systematic review, we focus on the effect of different levels of maternal education on infant mortality in Ethiopia. Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Scopus, and Maternity and Infant Care databases were searched between November 15, 2017 and February 20, 2018. All articles published until February 20, 2018 were included in the study. The data extraction was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA 2009) guidelines. An I2 test was used to assess heterogeneity and a funnel plot was used to check publication bias. Findings: We retrieved 441 records after removing duplications. During screening, 31 articles were fully accessed for data extraction. Finally, five articles were included for analysis. The overall pooled estimate indicated that attending primary education was associated with a 28% reduction in the odds of infant mortality compared to those infants born to mothers who were illiterate, OR: 0.72 (95% CI = 0.66, 0.78). Another pooled estimate indicated that attending secondary education and above was associated with a 45% reduction in the odds of infant mortality compared to those infants born to mothers who were illiterate, OR: 0.55 (95% CI = 0.47, 0.64). Conclusion: From this study, understanding the long-term impact of maternal education may contribute to reduce infant mortality. Therefore, policy makers should give more attention in promoting the role of women through removing institutional and cultural barriers, which hinder women from access to education in order to reduce infant mortality in Ethiopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research on contraceptive behaviour changes over time in Uganda is scarce, yet it has among the highest fertility and maternal mortality rates of any country in the East African region. Understanding temporal patterns of contraceptive use for both women and men is vital in evaluating the effectiveness of family planning interventions and strategies, and identifying those with the most unmet need. Using repeated nationally representative cross-sectional samples, this study charts the changes in Uganda’s population-based contraceptive use over recent years. Methods: Five Demographic and Health Survey datasets for Uganda over 21 years, from 1995 to 2016, were sourced and interrogated. Eligible participants included all women aged 15–49 years and men aged 15–54 years. Responses to questions on modern and any (modern or traditional) contraceptive use were analysed. Stratified by gender, weighted regression analyses were employed to detect change over time. The patterns associated with key demographic variables were also investigated. Results: Overall, 50,027 women and 14,092 men were included within the study. In 2016, 30.3% of women and 39.9% of men were using any contraceptive method, a significant non-linear increase from 13.4% of women and 20.3% of men in 1995. Furthermore, 27.3% of women and 35.9% of men were using modern contraceptive methods in 2016, an increase from 7.4% of women and 10.4% of men in 1995. All considered demographic variables were significantly associated with contraceptive use for both women and men (all P<0.001); and for women, all variables differentially changed over time (all P<0.001). Conclusion: This study showed a significant increase and dynamism across key demographic variables in contraceptive uptake by both women and men. Sustained family planning programs and interventions have successfully resulted in behaviour change across the Ugandan population. However, continued efforts are needed to further reduce Uganda’s relatively high fertility and associated maternal mortality rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence suggests that people with disabilities are the most marginalised and vulnerable group within any population. However, little is known about the extent of inequality between people with and without disabilities in contexts where the majority of persons experience extreme poverty and hardship. This includes in Liberia, where very little is understood about the lives of disabled people in general. This study uses a multidimensional wellbeing framework to understand perceived relative inequality associated with disability by assessing several facets of wellbeing across and within households containing disabled members (N = 485) or households with no disabled members (N = 538) in Liberian communities (Total individuals surveyed, N = 2020). Statistical comparisons (adjusted for age, sex, education and wealth differences and clustered at the household, village and county level) reveal that disabled Liberians are managing similarly to non-disabled Liberians in terms of income and education, but experience many perceived relative inequalities including in life satisfaction, transport access, political participation and social inclusion. Our results further suggest that disability may lead to perceived relative inequality at the household level in terms of trust held in neighbours. However, they also show that being the head of a household may protect against perceived relative inequality in certain dimensions (e.g. healthcare and transport access, political participation) irrespective of disability status. Results are discussed in terms of practical implications for development efforts in Liberia and for disabled people in other low- and middle-income settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distribution of silent comic illustrations can facilitate the communication and transfer of scientific recommendations about sustainable land management (SLM) to local communities in countries where many people are illiterate. However, since there are cross-cultural differences in "visual languages", visualization styles need to be carefully selected as well as locals' comprehension of the illustrated recommendation evaluated systematically. Three agricultural recommendations were chosen for comic-style illustrations, distributed to six communities in the Mahafaly region of southwestern Madagascar and evaluated using a three-step, interdependent approach. The silent comics illustrated (i) composting of manure and its application to improve soil fertility; (ii) cautious utilization of succulent silver thicket as supplementary forage; and (iii) sustainable harvesting practices of wild yam. Results revealed that general understandability strongly depended on the community that was surveyed and on the environmental subject that was illustrated. We found a strong relationship between the general understandability of comics and the divergence that exist in communities' socio-economic structure. Education level was an important factor that explained a better understanding of respondents for the comic illustrating compost production, but not for comics that illustrated sustainable usage of silver thicket and wild yam harvest. Willingness to follow the recommended practice was impaired when respondents valued no change to the improved technique compared to the common one. Effects of respondents' socio-economic characteristics on the implementation of the recommended practice could not be clarified within this study due to the small subset of data. Based on the evaluation of recurring comments made by respondents and interviewers, we conclude that comics can be a useful communication tool to increase locals' awareness and comprehension for SLM practices. This, however, requires that drawing details used to facilitate farmers' ability to adopt a point-of-view inside the comic story are used thoughtfully as they might interfere with the central message. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood traumas, in the form of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and neglect, are globally widespread and highly prevalent, and associated with a range of subsequent poor health outcomes. This study sought to understand the relationship between physical, sexual and emotional childhood abuse and subsequent HIV-risk behaviours amongst young people (18–30) living in urban informal settlements in Durban, South Africa. Data came from self-completed questionnaires amongst 680 women and 677 men comprising the baseline of the Stepping Stones and Creating Futures intervention trial. Men and women were analysed separately. Logistic regression models assessed the relationship between six HIV-risk behaviours and four measures of trauma: the form of trauma, the severity of each trauma, the range of traumas, and overall severity of childhood trauma. Childhood traumas were incredibly prevalent in this population. All childhood traumas were associated with a range of HIV-risk behaviours. This was for the ever/never trauma, as well as the severity of each type of trauma, the range of trauma, and overall severity of childhood trauma. Despite the wider harsh contexts of urban informal settlements, childhood traumas still play a significant role in shaping subsequent HIV-risk behaviours amongst young people. Interventions to reduce childhood traumas for populations in informal settlements need to be developed. In addition, trauma focused therapies need to be considered as part of wider HIV-prevention interventions for young adults. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]