Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH)

  • Estimating Sickle Cell Disease Prevalence and Child Survival using the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey

    Background Child mortality from sickle cell disease in sub-Saharan Africa is presumed to be high but is not well quantified. This uncertainty contributes to the neglect of sickle cell disease and delays the prioritisation of interventions. In this study, we estimated the mortality of children in Nigeria with sickle cell disease, and the proportion of…

  • A modular approach to integrating multiple data sources into real-time clinical prediction for pediatric diarrhea

    Traditional clinical prediction models focus on parameters of the individual patient. For infectious diseases, sources external to the patient, including characteristics of prior patients and seasonal factors, may improve predictive performance. We describe the development of a predictive model that integrates multiple sources of data in a principled statistical framework using a post-test odds formulation.…

  • A modular approach to integrating multiple data sources into real-time clinical prediction for pediatric diarrhea

    Traditional clinical prediction models focus on parameters of the individual patient. For infectious diseases, sources external to the patient, including characteristics of prior patients and seasonal factors, may improve predictive performance. We describe the development of a predictive model that integrates multiple sources of data in a principled statistical framework using a post-test odds formulation.…

  • A modular approach to integrating multiple data sources into real-time clinical prediction for pediatric diarrhea

    Traditional clinical prediction models focus on parameters of the individual patient. For infectious diseases, sources external to the patient, including characteristics of prior patients and seasonal factors, may improve predictive performance. We describe the development of a predictive model that integrates multiple sources of data in a principled statistical framework using a post-test odds formulation.…

  • Caring for Africa's sickle cell children: will we rise to the challenge?

    Background Most of the world’s sickle cell disease (SCD) burden is in Africa, where it is a major contributor to child morbidity and mortality. Despite the low cost of many preventive SCD interventions, insufficient resources have been allocated, and progress in alleviating the SCD burden has lagged behind other public-health efforts in Africa. The recent…

  • The Sickle Cell Disease Ontology: Enabling Collaborative Research and Co-Designing of New Planetary Health Applications

    Sickle cell disease (SCD) is one of the most common blood disorders impacting planetary health. Over 300,000 newborns are diagnosed with SCD each year globally, with an increasing trend. The sickle cell disease ontology (SCDO) is the most comprehensive multidisciplinary SCD knowledge portal. The SCDO was collaboratively developed by the SCDO working group, which includes…

  • Feasibility of Family-Assisted Severity of Illness Monitoring for Hospitalized Children in Low-Income Settings

    Objectives: To determine the feasibility of having caregivers assist in recognition of clinical deterioration in children hospitalized with febrile illness in a resource-limited setting. Design: Single-center, prospective, interventional pilot study. Setting: General pediatric wards at Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya’s largest public tertiary-care hospital. Patients: Children hospitalized with acute febrile illness, accompanied by caregivers available…

  • Spatial patterns of child mortality in Nanoro HDSS site, Burkina Faso

    Background Half of global child deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Understanding child mortality patterns and risk factors will help inform interventions to reduce this heavy toll. The Nanoro Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS), Burkina Faso was described previously, but spatial patterns of child mortality in the district had not been studied. Similar studies in…

  • Effect Modification by Baseline Mortality in the MORDOR Azithromycin Trial

    We examined whether baseline mortality risk, as a function of child age and site, modified the azithromycin mortality-reduction effect in the Macrolide Oraux pour Réduire les Décès avec un Oeil sur la Résistance (MORDOR) clinical trial. We used the Cox proportional hazards model with an interaction term. Three models were examined representing three sources for…

  • Efficacy of Mass Azithromycin Distribution for Reducing Childhood Mortality Across Geographic Regions

    Mass azithromycin distribution has been shown to reduce all-cause mortality in preschool children in sub-Saharan Africa. However, substantial heterogeneity in the apparent effect has been noted across geographic settings, suggesting a greater relative benefit in higher mortality settings. Here, we evaluated the relationship between the underlying mortality rate and the efficacy of azithromycin for the…