Tropical Health Matters

Donald Apat and colleagues address the importance of community health workers and appropriate supervision in their study from Kenya. This was presented today at the 69^th Annual Meeting of American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene which is virtual. See their findings below.

According to the 2018 Kenya malaria program review, the uptake of malaria in pregnancy interventions by rural communities in Kenya remains low due to late first presentation to antenatal care (ANC), leading to sub-optimal intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) coverage. Poor healthcare provider-client communication and low investment in advocacy, communication, and social mobilization contribute to late ANC presentation.

Kenya is using community health volunteers (CHVs) supervised by community health assistants (CHAs) in community health units (CHUs) to increase demand for ANC services and uptake of IPTp but tracking of progress is hampered by a lack of accurate data on the number of estimated pregnancies at the sub-national level and poor household coverage by CHVs at the community level.

In July 2019, Impact Malaria supported malaria-endemic Teso South sub-county of Busia county with the reorientation of 354 CHVs (92%) and 14 CHAs (100%), to identify and track pregnant women at the household level within the government established CHUs, provide social and behavior change communication messages, and enhance monthly supervision and reporting by CHAs.

CHVs identified and tracked 917 pregnant women from 32,758 (89.6%) households and identified and referred 273 ANC defaulters. We compared the uptake of IPTp before intervention (January to June 2019) and during the intervention (July to December 2019) using programmatic and Kenya health information system (KHIS) data.

At pre-intervention, 32,898 (90%) households were visited, with 2,160 new ANC visits and 5,342 ANC revisits. During the intervention period, 35,910 (98.3%) households were visited with 1,934 new ANC visits and 5,904 ANC revisits. Uptake of IPTp1 increased from 83.6% to 92.6%; IPTp2 from 73.5% to 87%; and IPTp3 from 51.9% to 75.4%.

Enhanced supervision of CHVs by CHAs to conduct and improve household visits enabled identification and referral of ANC defaulters and contributed to increased IPTp uptake. Supportive supervision and optimal CHU coverage in tracking pregnant women if conducted routinely may provide accurate denominators to track IPTp coverage and inform targeted interventions.

Authors and Affiliations

Donald Apat¹, Willis Akhwale¹, Moses Kidi¹, Edwin Onyango², James Andati¹, Hellen Gatakaa¹, Augustine Ngindu¹, Lolade Oseni³, Gladys Tetteh³, Daniel Wacira^4
1PMI-Impact Malaria, Nairobi, Kenya, ²Department of Health, Busia County, Kenya, ³Jhpiego, Baltimore, MD, United States, ⁴PMI, Nairobi, Kenya

Ryan Lash and colleagues examined factors associated with achieving antenatal care (ANC) attendance and intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) and made recommendations in Geita Region, Tanzania, 2019. There findings are being presented at the virtual 69^th Annual Meeting of American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Malaria in pregnancy results in an estimated 10,000 maternal and 100,000 infant deaths globally each year. To reduce this burden, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends pregnant women in high to moderate malaria transmission areas receive at least 3 doses of intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp3) with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) starting in the second trimester as part of routine antenatal care (ANC). Tanzania has national coverage goals of 80% coverage for women receiving IPTp3 and at least four ANC visits (ANC4).

We surveyed women 15-49 years who had given birth in the last 12 months from randomly selected households across 40 communities in Geita Region, Tanzania. ANC attendance and IPTp uptake was recorded from respondent ANC cards if available, or self-reported. Predictors of ANC4 and IPT3 uptake were identified using logistic regression modeling, accounting for clustering and controlling for gravidity.

Of 1,111 women surveyed, 505 (51.9%) received IPTp3 and 472 (43.4%) achieved ANC4. Among women who achieved ANC4, 295 (62.5%) received IPTp3. IPTp3 was associated with basic knowledge about ANC and IPTp (aOR 2.4, CI 1.9 -3.1), initiating ANC <20 weeks (aOR 1.7, CI 1.3-2.3), waiting at the facility for <120 minutes (aOR 1.4, CI 1.1-1.9), and receiving advice from a health worker about SP (aOR 1.7, CI 1.3-2.2).

ANC4 was associated with better access to care (aOR 1.9, CI 1.3-2.8, for travelling <3.75 km to ANC and aOR 1.9, CI 1.1-2.2, for waiting <90 minutes for the provider), initiating ANC at <20 weeks gestation (aOR 10.7, CI 8.2-14.1), and basic knowledge about ANC and IPTp (aOR 1.4, CI 1.0-1.9). Poor access to care and late initiation of ANC reduced the likelihood that women will attend 4 ANC visits. Knowledge was a predictor of both ANC attendance and IPTp uptake; increasing women’s health literacy may overcome some of the barriers associated with retention in ANC.

New approaches to delivering ANC that focus on improving knowledge and the experience of care among ANC clients could help close coverage gaps for ANC4 and IPTp3 in Tanzania

Authors and Affiliations

R. Ryan Lash(1), Ruth Lemwayi(2), Melkior Assenga(2), Alen Kinyina(2), Annette Almeida(2), Samwel L. Nhiga(3), Lia Florey(4), Chonge Kitojo(5), Erik Reaves(6), Miriam Kombe(5), Ally Mohamed(3), Japhet Simeo(7), Stephanie Suhowatsky(8), Mary Drake(2), Julie Gutman(1) 1.US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States, 2.Jhpiego Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic of, 3.National Malaria Control Program, Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic of, 4.US Agency for International Development, Washington, DC, United States, 5.US President’s Malaria Initiative / US Agency for International Development Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic of, 6.US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention / US President’s Malaria Initiative Tanzania, Atlanta, GA, United States, 7.Regional Medical Office, Geita, Geita, Tanzania, United Republic of, 8.Jhpiego, Baltimore, MD, United States