Search

This study examined the relationship between men’s involvement and primary caregivers’ antenatal visits, acquiring antenatal tablets, and working less during pregnancy. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 5,000 Tanzanian primary caregivers living in households with one or more children under the age of 2 years. Results indicated that primary caregivers who received help from their husband/partner, or perceived that men in their community helped their pregnant spouses, were more likely to practice healthy antenatal care behaviors, including attending antenatal visits, acquiring antenatal tablets, and working less during pregnancy. Similarly, women who thought that all their friends receive help from their husbands/partners were twice as likely to reduce their workload during their pregnancy. These findings suggest the importance of male involvement and support during pregnancy in order to improve antenatal care, reduce workload, and increase tablet consumption among primary caregivers.

Introduction: Growing evidence suggests that higher levels of sedentary behavior (SB) are associated with higher risk of death. Multiple systematic reviews with meta-analyses (SRMA) have been published on this topic and synthesis of these results would have great utility in facilitating knowledge uptake. Purpose: The purpose of this project is to synthesize existing SRMAs in order to examine associations between SB and all-cause mortality. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted by querying multiple electronic databases and hand-searching references. Inclusion criteria were SMRAs that reported associations in adults (18+ years old); examined SB as an exposure; included all-cause mortality as an outcome; and where sufficient results were available. Eligibility assessment and data extraction were done in duplicate by two independent reviewers. Discrepancies were solved by consensus. Descriptive characteristics, point estimates, confidence intervals and I 2 were extracted from eligible studies. Results: A total of 676 records were initially identified. After exclusions based on title, abstract, and full-text assessments, 5 eligible meta-analyses were identified, which included results based on 3,575,480 adults. Among the 5 meta-analyses, the studies per meta-analysis ranged from 3 to 12 and sitting time and television viewing time were the types of sedentary behaviors assessed. Effect sizes (OR, RR, HR) in the identified reports ranged from 0.96 to 1.59 (Figure 1). Conclusions: This systematic review of meta-analyses indicates a consistent dose-response of effect sizes between level of SB and all-cause mortality. This emphasizes the importance of targeting SB as a way of improving CV and overall health.