Harnessing pluralism for better health in Bangladesh

Challenges and opportunities for competency-based health professional education in Bangladesh: an interview, observation and mapping study

BACKGROUND

Bangladesh has a shortfall of health professionals. The World Health Organization states that improving education will increase recruitment and retention of health workers. Traditional learning approaches, in medical education particularly, focus on didactic teaching, teaching of subjects and knowledge testing. These approaches have been superseded in some programmes, with a greater focus on active learning, integrated teaching and learning of knowledge, application, skills and attitudes or values and associated testing of competencies as educational outcomes. In addition, some regions do not have continuous professional development or clinical placements for health worker students, contributing to difficulties in retention of health workers. This study aims to explore the experiences of health professional education in Bangladesh, focusing on what is through observation of health professional education sessions and experiences of educators.

METHODS

This mixed method study included 22 observations of teaching sessions in clinical and educational settings, detailed analysis of 8 national curricula documents mapped to Global Competency and Outcomes Framework for Universal Health Coverage and 15 interviews of professionals responsible for health education. An observational checklist was created based on previous literature which assessed training of within dimensions of basic clinical skills; diagnosis and management; professionalism; professional development; and effective communication. Interviews explored current practices within health education in Bangladesh, as well as barriers and facilitators to incorporating different approaches to learning.

RESULTS

Observations revealed a variety of approaches and frameworks followed across institutions. Only one observation included all sub-competencies of the checklist. National curricula documents varied in their coverage of the Global Competency and Outcomes Framework domains. Three key themes were generated from a thematic analysis of interview transcripts: (1) education across the career span; (2) challenges for health professional education; (3) contextual factors and health professional education. Opportunities for progression and development post qualification are limited and certain professions are favoured over others.

CONCLUSION

Traditional approaches seem to predominate but there is some enthusiasm for a more clinical focus to education and for more competency based approaches to teaching, learning and assessment.

The importance of epistemology and translation for health and integration: A commentary on the special issue 'Integrative approaches to health'

In this commentary on the J-AIM Special Issue 'Integrative Approaches to Health', we argue for plural narratives of health to balance and to reconnect human populations with their environments, to foster a renewed culture of health and wellbeing. Integration of our inner and outer ecosystems with pluralistic health systems requires 'movement' and 'change' and the special issue provides papers on integration and health from multiple disciplinary perspectives that study humans, non-human, animals, and plants in relation to clinical trials, individual and population studies and health systems. All these perspectives provide new insights to map integrative approaches in health, illness and wellbeing in times of the climate emergency. To ameliorate the biomedical and biopharmaceutical industries 'medicalisation of life' as the hegemonic and thus totalising human and more-than-human health systems and approach, the special issue acknowledges, situates and authorises broader visions and epistemologies of health and disease. These complementary epistemologies, their words, their movements (Ayu) and their health (Swastya) and balance (Soukya) are contained within indigenous health systems that include Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) amongst a vast array of local health cultures across the globe. In contrast with the narrower approach of medicalisation; integrative, inclusive, plural and sustainable approaches to health involve the respect for a population's self-reliance in health (the 4th Tier) and the dignity of the Sanskrit word for health, 'Swastya' which means 'being rooted within'. These perspective and epistemologies will help to create a vision for health and health systems that encourage integration through the dignity of the individual (Atmasnman/Anubhuti), respect for the other (Pratiksa/Adara), trust in community (Nyasa) and the creation of systems of equity (Samata) and social justice for all (Nyaya).

Who is absent and why? Factors affecting doctor absenteeism in Bangladesh

Absenteeism by doctors in public healthcare facilities in rural Bangladesh is a form of chronic rule-breaking and is recognised as a critical problem by the government. We explored the factors underlying this phenomenon from doctors' perspectives. We conducted a facility-based cross-sectional survey in four government hospitals in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Junior doctors with experience in rural postings were interviewed to collect data on socio-demographic characteristics, work and living experience at the rural facilities, and associations with professional and social networks. Multiple logistic regression was used to determine the factors associated with rural retention. Of 308 respondents, 74% reported having served each term of their rural postings without interruptions. The main reasons for absenteeism reported by those who interrupted rural postings were formal training opportunities (65%), family commitments (41%), and a miscellaneous group of others (17%). Almost half of the respondents reported unmanageable workloads. Most (96%) faced challenges in their last rural posting, such as physically unsafe environments (70%), verbally abusive behaviour by patients/caregivers (67%) and absenteeism by colleagues that impacted them (48%). Respondents who did not serve their entire rural posting were less likely to report an unmanageable workload than respondents who did (AOR 0.39, 95% CI 0.22-0.70). Respondents with connections to influential people in the local community had a 2.4 times higher chance of serving in rural facilities without interruption than others (AOR 2.40, 95% CI 1.26-4.57). Our findings demonstrate that absenteeism is not universal and depends upon doctors' socio-political networks. Policy interventions rarely target unsupportive or threatening behaviour by caregivers and community members, a pivotal disincentive to doctors' willingness to work in underserved rural areas. Policy responses must promote opportunities for doctors with weak networks who are willing to attend work with appropriate support.

Voting with their feet: Primary care provider choice and its implications for public sector primary care services in India

Expanding networks of government primary health centers (PHCs) to bring health services closer to communities is a longstanding policy objective in LMICs. In pluralistic health systems, where public and private providers compete for patients, PHCs are often not the preferred source for care. This study analyzes the market for primary care services in the Indian state of Bihar to understand how choice of primary care provider is influenced by distance, cost and quality of care. This study is based on linked surveys of rural households, PHCs, and private primary care providers conducted in 2019 and 2020. Most rural residents lived in proximity to a primary care provider, though not a qualified one. Within a 5-km distance, 60% of villages had a PHC, 90% had an informal provider, 35% an Indian systems of medicine practitioner, and 10% a private MBBS doctor. Most patients sought care from informal providers irrespective of PHC distance; only 25% of patients living in the PHC's vicinity sought care there. Reducing distance to the PHC by 1 km marginally increased the likehood of the PHC being selected, and reduced the likelihood of private clinics being selected. Reducing patient's costs at PHCs increased the likelihood of the PHC being selected and reduced the likelihood of private clinics and private hospitals being selected. Improved clinical quality at PHCs had no effect on patient selection of PHCs, private clinics, or hospitals. Illness severity reduced the likelihood of PHCs or private clinics being selected, and increased the likelihood of private hospitals selected. Wealthier patients were marginally more likely to use PHCs, substantially more likely to use private hospitals, and less likely to use private clinics. Expanding PHC network coverage or improving their quality of care is not sufficient to make PHCs more relevant to local health needs. An orientation towards essential public health functions, as well as, a community-centered approach to the organization of primary health care system is necessary.

The burden of diseases and risk factors in Bangladesh, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

BACKGROUND

Bangladesh has made substantial progress in improving socioeconomic and health indicators over the past 50 years, but data on national disease burden are scarce. We used data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 to estimate the burden of diseases and risk factors in Bangladesh from 1990 to 2019.

METHODS

For this systematic analysis, we analysed data from vital registration systems, surveys, and censuses using multistage modelling processes to estimate life expectancy at birth, mortality rate, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs). Additionally, we compared the health status of Bangladesh with that of the other countries in the GBD south Asia region-Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan.

FINDINGS

Life expectancy at birth in Bangladesh increased from 58·2 years (95% uncertainty interval 57·1-59·2) in 1990 to 74·6 years (72·4-76·7) in 2019. Between 1990 and 2019, the age-standardised mortality rate decreased from 1509·3 (1428·6-1592·1) to 714·4 (604·9-838·2) deaths per 100 000 population. In 2019, non-communicable diseases represented 14 of the top 20 causes of death; the leading three causes were stroke, ischaemic heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. High blood pressure, high fasting plasma glucose, and smoking were the top three risk factors. From 1990 to 2019, the rate of all-cause DALYs decreased by 54·9% (48·8-60·4). In 2019, the leading causes of DALYs and YLLs were neonatal disorders, stroke, and ischaemic heart disease, whereas musculoskeletal disorders, depressive disorders, and low back pain were the leading causes of YLDs. Bangladesh has the lowest age-standardised rates of mortality, YLDs, and YLLs and the highest life expectancy at birth in south Asia.

INTERPRETATION

Over the past 30 years, mortality rates have reduced by more than half in Bangladesh. Bangladesh must now address the double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Cost-effective, multisectoral efforts are needed to prevent and control non-communicable diseases, promote healthy lifestyles, and prevent premature mortality and disabilities.

FUNDING

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

TRANSLATION

For the Bangla translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Beyond the regulatory radar: knowledge and practices of rural medical practitioners in Bangladesh

BACKGROUND

Informal and unregulated rural medical practitioners (RMPs) provide healthcare services to about two-thirds of people in Bangladesh, although their service is assumed to be substandard by qualified providers. As the RMPs are embedded in the local community and provide low-cost services, their practice pattern demands investigation to identify the shortfalls and design effective strategies to ameliorate the service.

METHODS

We conducted a cross-sectional study in 2015-16 using a convenient sample from all 64 districts of Bangladesh. Personnel practising modern medicine, without any recognized training, or with recognized training but practising outside their defined roles, and without any regulatory oversight were invited to take part in the study. Appropriateness of the diagnosis and the rationality of antibiotic and other drug use were measured as per the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness guideline.

RESULTS

We invited 1004 RMPs, of whom 877 consented. Among them, 656 (74.8%) RMPs owned a drugstore, 706 (78.2%) had formal education below higher secondary level, and 844 (96.2%) had informal training outside regulatory oversight during or after induction into the profession. The most common diseases encountered by them were common cold, pneumonia, and diarrhoea. 583 (66.5%) RMPs did not dispense any antibiotic for common cold symptoms. 59 (6.7%) and 64 (7.3%) of them could identify all main symptoms of pneumonia and diarrhoea, respectively. In pneumonia, 28 (3.2%) RMPs dispensed amoxicillin as first-line treatment, 819 (93.4%) dispensed different antibiotics including ceftriaxone, 721 (82.2%) dispensed salbutamol, and 278 (31.7%) dispensed steroid. In diarrhoea, 824 (94.0%) RMPs dispensed antibiotic, 937 (95.4%) dispensed ORS, 709 (80.8%) dispensed antiprotozoal, and 15 (1.7%) refrained from dispensing antibiotic and antiprotozoal together.

CONCLUSIONS

Inappropriate diagnoses, irrational use of antibiotics and other drugs, and polypharmacy were observed in the practising pattern of RMPs. The government and other stakeholders should acknowledge them as crucial partners in the healthcare sector and consider ways to incorporate them into curative and preventive care.

Village doctors: a national telephone survey of Bangladesh's lay medical practitioners

BACKGROUND

Bangladesh outperforms its Least Developed Country (LDC) status on a range of health measures including life expectancy. Its frontline medical practitioners, however, are not formally trained medical professionals, but instead lightly-trained 'village doctors' able to prescribe modern pharmaceuticals. This current study represents the most complete national survey of these practitioners and their informal 'clinics'.

METHODS

The study is based on a national Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) of 1,000 informal practitioners. Participants were sampled from all eight divisions and all 64 districts of Bangladesh, including 682 participants chosen from the purposively recruited Refresher Training program conducted by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), supplemented with 318 additional participants recruited through snowball sampling.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES

In addition to demographics, village doctors were asked about the characteristics of their 'clinics' including their equipment, their training, income and referral practices.

RESULTS

Three quarters of the wholly male sample had not completed an undergraduate program, and none of the sample had received any bachelor-level university training in medicine. Medical training was confined to a range of short-course offerings. Village doctor 'clinics' are highly dependent on the sale of pharmaceuticals, with few charging a consultation fee. Income was not related to degree of short-course uptake but was related positively to degree of formal education. Finally, practitioners showed a strong tendency to refer patients to the professional medical care system.

CONCLUSIONS

Bangladesh's village doctor sector provides an important pathway to professional, trained medical care, and provides some level of care to those who cannot afford or otherwise access the nation's established healthcare system. However, the degree to which relatively untrained paramedical practitioners are prescribing conventional medicines has concerning health implications.

The pharmacy as a primary care provider

Introduction

Primary care is an essential component of any health system, but building high-quality primary care has proven to be a challenge for most developing countries. Among the multiplicity of providers in South Asia, one of the most ubiquitous channels through which not only medicines are obtained but also primary care advice is sought is the neighborhood pharmacy. There are widespread availability of pharmacies in South Asia. There is also good evidence that working with pharmacies in this way is a globally accepted idea, and there are several examples of countries, such as France and Nigeria, that have integrated pharmacies into their primary care systems and entrusted them with significant responsibilities.

Methods

In this paper, we explore the potential of this channel as a formal primary care provider, with a particular focus on the South Asian context, by examining how pharmacies perform against the seven Starfield attributes of (i) first contact care, (ii) continuity of care, (iii) comprehensiveness, (iv) coordination, (v) family centredness, (vi) cultural competency, and (vii) community orientation. In the paper, we use data on pharmacies from four pharmacy-related interventions, one from Bangladesh and three from India, to carry out our analysis using the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) framework.

Results

We find that even in the South Asian context, pharmacies provide several components of good primary care. As expected, they demonstrate a strong orientation toward the community in which they are located and are able to provide first-contact care. However, we find no direct evidence that they are able to offer continuity of care or bring to bear family-centredness and cultural competency when dealing with their patients. It is encouraging, however, that while there is no formal evidence of this in any of the interventions, multiple anecdotal examples suggest that pharmacists do indeed do much of this, but perhaps in an informal and inconsistent manner.

Discussion

The evidence from these studies provides support for the view that pharmacies have many of the inherent characteristics needed to become an effective primary care channel and already play an important role in providing access to health information and care. However, it is also clear from the research that without additional training and access to tools, pharmacies will not have the competency or knowledge necessary to provide these services or even act as an effective gateway to other healthcare providers. To fully unlock this opportunity, therefore, any organization that wishes to engage with them will need to have the vision and patience to work with this network for an extended period of time and not merely aspire for incremental improvements but have a strategy in place that fundamentally changes the capabilities and the roles that pharmacies can play.

Exploring the factors contributing to increase in facility child births in Bangladesh between 2004 and 2017-2018

Background

Although Bangladesh has gained rapid improvement in births at health facilities, yet far behind to achieve the SDG target. Assessing the contribution of factors in increased use of delivery at facilities are important to demonstrate.

Objective

To explore the determinants and their contribution in explaining increased use of facility child births in Bangladesh.

Participants

Reproductive-aged women (15-49 years) of Bangladesh.

Methods and materials

We used the latest five rounds (2004, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2017-2018) of Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys (BDHSs). The regression based classical decomposition approach has been used to explore the determinants and their contribution in explaining the increased use of facility child birth.

Results

A sample of 26,686 reproductive-aged women were included in the analysis, 32.90% (8780) from the urban and 67.10% (17,906) from the rural area. We observed a 2.4-fold increase in delivery at facilities from 2004 to 2017-2018, in rural areas it is more than three times higher than the urban areas. The change in mean delivery at facilities is about 1.8 whereas, the predicted change is 1.4. In our full sample model antenatal care visits contribute the largest predicted change of 22.3%, wealth and education contributes 17.3% and 15.3% respectively. For the rural area health indicator (prenatal doctor visit) is the largest drivers contributing 42.7% of the predicted change, hereafter education, demography and wealth. However, in urban area education and health contributed equally 32.0% of the change followed by demography (26.3%) and wealth (9.7%). Demographic variables (maternal BMI, birth order, age at marriage) contributing more than two-thirds (41.2%) of the predicted change in the model without the health variables. All models showed more than 60.0% predictive power.

Conclusion

Health sector interventions should focus both coverage and quality of maternal health care services to sustain steady improvements in child birth facilities.

Stakeholder perceptions on scaling-up community-led interventions for prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in Bangladesh: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Engaging communities is an important component of multisectoral action to address the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in low- and middle-income countries. We conducted research with non-communicable disease stakeholders in Bangladesh to understand how a community-led intervention which was shown to reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes in rural Bangladesh could be scaled-up.

METHODS

We purposively sampled any actor who could have an interest in the intervention, or that could affect or be affected by the intervention. We interviewed central level stakeholders from donor agencies, national health policy levels, public, non-governmental, and research sectors to identify scale-up mechanisms. We interviewed community health workers, policy makers, and non-governmental stakeholders, to explore the feasibility and acceptability of implementing the suggested mechanisms. We discussed scale-up options in focus groups with community members who had attended a community-led intervention. We iteratively developed our data collection tools based on our analysis and re-interviewed some participants. We analysed the data deductively using a stakeholder analysis framework, and inductively from codes identified in the data.

RESULTS

Despite interest in addressing NCDs, there was a lack of a clear community engagement strategy at the government level, and most interventions have been implemented by non-governmental organisations. Many felt the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare should lead on community engagement, and NCD screening and referral has been added to the responsibilities of community health workers and health volunteers. Yet there remains a focus on reproductive health and NCD diagnosis and referral instead of prevention at the community level. There is potential to engage health volunteers in community-led interventions, but their present focus on engaging women for reproductive health does not fit with community needs for NCD prevention.

CONCLUSIONS

Research highlighted the need for a preventative community engagement strategy to address NCDs, and the potential to utilise existing cadres to scale-up community-led interventions. It will be important to work with key stakeholders to address gender issues and ensure flexibility and responsiveness to community concerns. We indicate areas for further implementation research to develop scaled-up models of community-led interventions to address NCDs.

Factors influencing the timeliness of care for patients with lung cancer in Bangladesh

BACKGROUND

This study explored the factors associated with timeliness of care in the healthcare seeking pathway among patients with lung cancer in Bangladesh.

METHODS

A structured questionnaire was used for data collection from 418 patients with lung cancer through face-to-face interviews in three tertiary care hospitals. Log-rank tests were performed to test differences in the length of intervals between points in healthcare by socioeconomic characteristics and care seeking behaviours of the patients. Cox Proportional Hazard (PH) regression analysis was performed to identify the predictors of the intervals after adjustment for variations in other variables.

RESULTS

A higher education level was associated significantly (p < 0.05) with a shorter interval between first contact with a healthcare provider (HCP) and diagnosis (median 81 days) and initiation of treatment (median 101 days). Higher monthly household income was associated significantly with a shorter time from first contact and diagnosis (median 91 days), onset of symptom and diagnosis (median 99 days), onset of symptom and treatment (median 122 days), and first contact with any HCP to treatment (median 111 days). Consulting with additional HCPs prior to diagnosis was associated significantly with longer intervals from first contact with any HCP and diagnosis (median 127 days), onset of symptom and diagnosis (median 154 days), onset of symptom and treatment (median 205 days), and first contact with any HCP to treatment (median 174 days). Consulting with informal HCPs was associated significantly with a longer time interval from symptom to treatment (median 171 days). Having more than one triggering symptom was associated significantly with a shorter interval between onset of symptoms and first contact with any HCP.

CONCLUSION

The predictors for timeliness of lung cancer care used in this study affected different intervals in the care seeking pathway. Higher education and income predicted shorter intervals whereas consulting informal healthcare providers and multiple providers were associated with longer intervals.

Modelling social entrepreneurial intention among university students in Bangladesh using value-belief-norm framework

While the public sector authorities and governments struggle to ensure socioeconomic balance at all levels of society, social entrepreneurship is widely known as the optimum solution to societal issues, such as unemployment, social disparities, and ecological imbalances. Despite the fact that the younger generation holds the highest potential to be future social entrepreneurs, a few studies have been conducted to explore the factors that influence their social entrepreneurial intentions (SEI) in developing countries, such as Bangladesh. Furthermore, the empirical studies based on the value-belief-norm (VBN) theory for addressing SEI were scarce in the existing literature. The study aims to measure the influence of Altruistic Values (AV), Traditional Values (TV), Personal Normative Beliefs (NB), Awareness of Consequences (AC), Ascription of Responsibility (AR), Personal Norms (PN), and Social Norms (SN) on SEI implementation of the VBN framework. A combination of web-based and hardcopy surveys was used to collect data from 797 students of higher educational institutes in Bangladesh. The hypotheses and associations between the factors were statistically analysed using structural equation modelling. As a result, it was demonstrated that AV and TV had a notable influence on NB. Similarly, NB showed a significant positive impact on PN and AC, while AC and AR were reported to have a substantial influence on PN. Finally, PN and SN showed a strong impact on SEI. The holistic social entrepreneurship model proposed in this study should be effective for socioeconomic development by incorporating commercially feasible and sustainable principles. Overall, the study findings would assist researchers, current social entrepreneurs and organisations, educational institutes, government agencies, and individual potential entrepreneurs with accurate knowledge and insight to construct their strategies and efficiently pursue social ventures.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-04119-2.

Health system challenges and opportunities in organizing non-communicable diseases services delivery at primary healthcare level in Bangladesh: A qualitative study

Introduction

The weak health system is viewed as a major systematic obstacle to address the rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in resource-poor settings. There is little information about the health system challenges and opportunities in organizing NCD services. This study examined the health system challenges and opportunities in organizing NCD services for four major NCDs (cervical cancer, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, and chronic respiratory illnesses) at the primary healthcare (PHC) level in Bangladesh.

Methods

Using a qualitative method, data were collected from May to October 2021 by conducting 15 in-depth interviews with local healthcare providers, 14 key informant interviews with facility-based providers and managers, and 16 focus group discussions with community members. Based on a health system dynamics framework, data were analyzed thematically. Information gathered through the methods and sources was triangulated to validate the data.

Results

Organization of NCD services at the PHC level was influenced by a wide range of health system factors, including the lack of using standard treatment guidelines and protocols, under-regulated informal and profit-based private healthcare sectors, poor health information system and record-keeping, and poor coordination across healthcare providers and platforms. Furthermore, the lack of functional referral services; inadequate medicine, diagnostic facilities, and logistics supply; and a large number of untrained human resources emerged as key weaknesses that affected the organization of NCD services. The availability of NCD-related policy documents, the vast network of healthcare infrastructure and frontline staff, and increased demand for NCD services were identified as the major opportunities.

Conclusion

Despite the substantial potential, the health system challenge impeded the organization of NCD services delivery at the PHC level. This weakness needs be to addressed to organize quality NCD services to better respond to the rising burden of NCDs at the PHC level.

When Water Quality Crises Drive Change: A Comparative Analysis of the Policy Processes Behind Major Water Contamination Events

The occurrence of major water contamination events across the world have been met with varying levels of policy responses. Arsenic-a priority water contaminant globally, occurring naturally in groundwater, causing adverse health effects-is widespread in Bangladesh. However, the policy response has been slow, and marked by ineffectiveness and a lack of accountability. We explore the delayed policy response to the arsenic crisis in Bangladesh through comparison with water contamination crises in other contexts, using the Multiple Streams Framework to compare policy processes. These included Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Campylobacter in Walkerton, Canada; lead and Legionella in Flint, Michigan, USA; and chromium-6 contamination in Hinkley, California, USA. We find that, while water contamination issues are solvable, a range of complex conditions have to be met in order to reach a successful solution. These include aspects of the temporal nature of the event and the outcomes, the social and political context, the extent of the public or media attention regarding the crisis, the politics of visibility, and accountability and blame. In particular, contaminants with chronic health outcomes, and longer periods of subclinical disease, lead to smaller policy windows with less effective policy changes. Emerging evidence on health threats from drinking water contamination raise the risk of new crises and the need for new approaches to deliver policy change.

Beyond Institutionalization: Planning for Sustained Investments in Training, Supervision, and Support of Community Health Worker Programs in Bangladesh

Institutionalizing community health workers (CHWs) is insufficient for improving program quality. Governments must plan for sustained investments for salaries and benefits, as well as systems enabling adaptive management of the CHW cadres. Greater coordination is needed at the global level to pool and align donor investments to support the ecosystem underlying CHW programs.

Introduction:

Methods:

Results:

Discussion:

Effects of spousal migration on access to healthcare for women left behind: A cross-sectional follow-up study

BACKGROUND

Women left behind by migration represent a unique and growing population yet remain understudied as key players in the context of migration and development. Using a unique longitudinal survey of life in Bangladesh, the Matlab Health and Socioeconomic Surveys, we examined the role of spousal migration in healthcare utilization for women. The objective of this study was to assess realized access to care (do women actually get healthcare when it is needed) and consider specific macrostructural, predisposing, and resource barriers to care that are related to migration.

METHODS AND FINDINGS

In a sample of 3,187 currently married women, we estimated multivariate logistic and multinomial regression models controlling for a wide range of baseline sociodemographic factors measured as far back as 1982. Our analyses also controlled for selection effects and explored two mechanisms through which spousal migration can affect healthcare utilization for women, remittances and frequent contact with spouses. We found that women with migrant spouses were approximately half as likely to lack needed healthcare compared to women whose spouses remained in Bangladesh (predicted probability of not getting needed healthcare 11.7% vs. 21.8%, p<0.001). The improvements in access (logistic regression coefficient for lacking care for left-behind women -0.761 p<0.01) primarily occurred through a reduction in financial barriers to care for women whose spouses were abroad.

CONCLUSIONS

Wives of international migrants showed significantly better access to healthcare even when accounting for selection into a migrant family. While the overall story is one of positive migration effects on healthcare access due to reductions in financial barriers to care, results also showed an increase in family-related barriers such as not being permitted to get care by a family member or travel alone to a facility, indicating that some of the benefits of migration for women left behind may be diluted by gendered family structures.

Mandatory employer-sponsored health financing scheme for semiformal workers in Bangladesh: An experimental assessment

In this study, we present findings from an experimental evaluation of a mandatory employer-sponsored health insurance scheme in Bangladesh. We randomly introduced the scheme to female artisans to understand the impacts on healthcare utilisation, expenditure and subjective well-being using both survey and administrative data. Our findings suggest that the scheme broke even; however, it covered only six percent of the overall health expenditure and 16 percent of the hospitalisation costs. We find higher inpatient care utilisation, particularly among women, and in favour of empanelled hospitals causally associated with the intervention, consistent with the design of the scheme. We do not find significant healthcare savings or improvement in subjective well-being, consistent with low coverage. The findings suggest the scheme to be financially sustainable and it changes the healthcare seeking behaviours as the scheme incentivises. However, meaningful savings and protection against catastrophic health expenditures will require a higher level of coverage.

Duration of intervals in the care seeking pathway for lung cancer in Bangladesh: A journey from symptoms triggering consultation to receipt of treatment

Timeliness in seeking care is critical for lung cancer patients' survival and better prognosis. The care seeking trajectory of patients with lung cancer in Bangladesh has not been explored, despite the differences in health systems and structures compared to high income countries. This study investigated the symptoms triggering healthcare seeking, preferred healthcare providers (including informal healthcare providers such as pharmacy retailers, village doctors, and "traditional healers"), and the duration of intervals in the lung cancer care pathway of patients in Bangladesh. A cross-sectional study was conducted in three tertiary care hospitals in Bangladesh among diagnosed lung cancer patients through face-to-face interview and medical record review. Time intervals from onset of symptom and care seeking events were calculated and compared between those who sought initial care from different providers using Wilcoxon rank sum tests. Among 418 study participants, the majority (90%) of whom were males, with a mean age of 57 ±9.86 years, cough and chest pain were the most common (23%) combination of symptoms triggering healthcare seeking. About two-thirds of the total respondents (60%) went to informal healthcare providers as their first point of contact. Living in rural areas, lower levels of education and lower income were associated with seeking care from such providers. The median duration between onset of symptom to confirmation of diagnosis was 121 days, between confirmation of diagnosis and initiation of treatment was 22 days, and between onset of symptom and initiation of treatment was 151 days. Pre-diagnosis durations were longer for those who had sought initial care from an informal provider (p<0.05). Time to first contact with a health provider was shorter in this study compared to other developed and developing countries but utilizing informal healthcare providers caused delays in diagnosis and initiation of treatment. Encouraging people to seek care from a formal healthcare provider may reduce the overall duration of the care seeking pathway.

Exploring the System Determinants Associated with Senior Women's Access to Medical Care in Rural Bangladesh

Senior women's access to medical care in rural Bangladesh is a major public health concern. This study aims to explore the system determinants that impact on rural senior women's utilization of healthcare. Following a qualitative critical social research design, healthcare staff and senior women living in three rural villages of Bangladesh were approached to participate in face-to-face audio-recorded interviews. A total of 11 staff and 25 senior women were interviewed with questions about health policy, healthcare services and management of aged care. Data was analyzed using a blend of critical discourse and thematic analysis methods. Several healthcare system determinants were identified that were complex and cross-sectional. Three major themes emerged from the system determinants: legal framework of aged care; inadequate healthcare support; and professional knowledge and skills of healthcare staff that led the rural senior women to avoid or delay access to hospitals and clinics. The findings revealed that a lack of health focus and professional skills among healthcare staff can be considered as critical. This study recommends that policy and organizational changes are made to improve the women's access to rural hospitals and clinics in Bangladesh.

Targeting anticorruption interventions at the front line: developmental governance in health systems

In 2008, Vian reported an increasing interest in understanding how corruption affects healthcare outcomes and asked what could be done to combat corruption in the health sector. Eleven years later, corruption is seen as a heterogeneous mix of activity, extensive and expensive in terms of loss of productivity, increasing inequity and costs, but with few examples of programmes that have successfully tackled corruption in low-income or middle-income countries. The commitment, by multilateral organisations and many governments to the Sustainable Development Goals and Universal Health Coverage has renewed an interest to find ways to tackle corruption within health systems. These efforts must, however, begin with a critical assessment of the existing theoretical models and approaches that have underpinned action in the health sector in the past and an assessment of the potential of innovations from anticorruption work developed in sectors other than health. To that end, this paper maps the key debates and theoretical frameworks that have dominated research on corruption in health. It examines their limitations, the blind spots that they create in terms of the questions asked, and the capacity for research to take account of contextual factors that drive practice. It draws on new work from heterodox economics which seeks to target anticorruption interventions at practices that have high impact and which are politically and economically feasible to address. We consider how such approaches can be adopted into health systems and what new questions need to be addressed by researchers to support the development of sustainable solutions to corruption. We present a short case study from Bangladesh to show how such an approach reveals new perspectives on actors and drivers of corruption practice. We conclude by considering the most important areas for research and policy.

Distribution of wealth-stratified inequalities on maternal and child health parameters and influences of maternal-related factors on improvements in child health survival rate in Bangladesh

This study investigates the influence of household socioeconomic status and maternal risk factors and health-care service availability on changes in the under-five mortality rate (U5MR) in Bangladesh. Potential risk factors that influence U5MRs were investigated using multilevel logistic regression analysis and 29,697 data points from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys, 2004-2014. Maternal and child health parameters such as childhood morbidity, low vaccination coverage, poor utilization of perinatal care, and malnutrition were found to be more concentrated in poorer households. Pooled estimates indicated that the aggregate odds of U5MR risk declined by 18% to 2007 to 38% to 2014 compared to 2004. However, inadequate antenatal care, short birth interval, primiparity, illiteracy, delayed conception, and low socioeconomic status were significantly associated with a higher risk of under-five mortality. The magnitude of inequality using these measures were significantly associated with large variations in U5MR changes. Although a significant reduction in U5MR in Bangladesh was found in this study, substantial socioeconomic variations still persist. The analysis suggests that decreasing inequality in society is required for further reductions in child mortality. This will help to achieve a more equitable distribution of child and neonatal outcomes and assist the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 3.2 by 2030.

Effective coverage of nutrition interventions across the continuum of care in Bangladesh: insights from nationwide cross-sectional household and health facility surveys

INTRODUCTION

Improving the impact of nutrition interventions requires adequate measurement of both reach and quality of interventions, but limited evidence exists on advancing coverage measurement. We adjusted contact-based coverage estimates, taking into consideration the inputs required to deliver quality nutrition services, to calculate input-adjusted coverage of nutrition interventions across the continuum of care from pregnancy through early childhood in Bangladesh.

METHODS

We used data from the 2014 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys to assess use of maternal and child health services and the 2014 Service Provision Assessment to determine facility readiness to deliver nutrition interventions. Service readiness captured availability of nutrition-specific inputs (including human resources and training, equipment, diagnostics and medicines). Contact coverage was combined with service readiness to create a measure of input-adjusted coverage at the national and regional levels, across place of residence, and by maternal education and household socioeconomic quintiles.

RESULTS

Contact coverage varied from 28% for attending at least four ANC visits to 38% for institutional delivery, 35% for child growth monitoring and 81% for sick child care. Facilities demonstrated incomplete readiness for nutrition interventions, ranging from 48% to 51% across services. Nutrition input-adjusted coverage was suboptimal (18% for ANC, 23% for institutional delivery, 20% for child growth monitoring and 52% for sick child care) and varied between regions within the country. Inequalities in input-adjusted coverage were large during ANC and institutional delivery (14-17 percentage points (pp) between urban and rural areas, 15 pp between low and high education, and 28-34 pp between highest and lowest wealth quintiles) and less variable for sick child care (<2 pp).

CONCLUSION

Nutrition input-adjusted coverage was suboptimal and varied subnationally and across the continuum of care in Bangladesh. Special efforts are needed to improve the reach as well as the quality of health and nutrition services to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

A Policy Analysis Regarding Education, Career, and Governance of the Nurses in Bangladesh: A Qualitative Exploration

Nurses, short in production and inequitable in the distribution in Bangladesh, require the government's efforts to increase enrolment in nursing education and a smooth career progression. Given the importance of an assessment of the current nursing scenario to inform the decision makers and practitioners to implement the new policies successfully, we analyzed relevant policies on education, career, and governance of nurses in Bangladesh. We used documents review and qualitative methods such as key informant interviews (n = 13) and stakeholder analysis. We found that nursing education faced several backlashes: resistance from diploma nurses while attempting to establish a graduate (bachelor) course in 1977, and the reluctance of politicians and entrepreneurs to establish nursing institutions. Many challenges with the implementation of nursing policies are attributable to social, cultural, religious, and historical factors. For example, Hindus considered touching the bodily excretions as the task of the lower castes, while Muslims considered women touching the body of the men immoral. Nurses also face governance challenges linked with their performance and reward. For example, nurses have little voice over the decisions related to their profession, and they are not allowed to perform clinical duties unsupervised. To improve the situation, the government has made new policies, including upliftment of nurses' position in public service, the creation of an independent Directorate General, and improvement of nursing education and service. New policies often come with new apprehensions. Therefore, nurses should be included in the policy processes, and their capacity should be developed in nursing leadership and health system governance.

Assessing the effect of pregnancy intention at conception on the continuum of care in maternal healthcare services use in Bangladesh: Evidence from a nationally representative cross-sectional survey

Background

The Continuum of Care (CoC; defined as accessing the recommended healthcare services during pregnancy and the early postpartum period) is low in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). This may be a major contributor to the high rates of pregnancy-related complications and deaths in LMICs, particularly among women who had an unintended pregnancy. With a lack of research on the subject in Bangladesh, we aimed to examine the effect of unintended pregnancy on CoC.

Methods

Data from 4,493 mother-newborn dyads who participated in the cross-sectional 2014 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey were analysed. Women’s level of CoC was generated from responses to questions on the use and non-use of three recommended services during the course of pregnancy: four or more antenatal care (ANC) visits, skilled birth attendance (SBA) during delivery, and at least one postnatal care (PNC) visit within 24 hours of giving birth. Global recommendations of service use were used to classify CoC as high (used each of the recommended services), moderate (used at least two of the three recommended services), and low/none (no PNC, no SBA, and ≤3 ANC visits). Women’s pregnancy intention at the time of conception of their last pregnancy (ending with a live birth) was the major exposure variable, classified as wanted, mistimed, and unwanted. Unadjusted and adjusted (with individual-, household-, and community-level factors) multilevel multinomial logistic regression models were used to assess the association between unintended pregnancy and level of CoC.

Results

In Bangladesh, the highest level of CoC occurred in only 12% of pregnancies that ended with live births. This figure was reduced to 5.6% if the pregnancy was unwanted at conception. The antenatal period saw the greatest drop in CoC, with 65.13% of women receiving at least one ANC visit and 26.32% having four or more ANC visits. Following the adjustment of confounders, an unwanted pregnancy was found to be associated with 39% and 62% reduced odds of women receiving moderate and high levels of CoC, respectively, than those with a wanted pregnancy. Having a mistimed pregnancy was found to be associated with a 31% reduction in odds of women achieving a high CoC than women with a wanted pregnancy.

Conclusion

Almost nine in ten women did not achieve CoC in their last pregnancy, which was even higher when the pregnancy was unintended. Given that the ANC period has been identified as a critical time for intervention for these women, it is necessary for policies to scale up current maternal healthcare services that provide in-home maternal healthcare services and to monitor the continuity of ANC, with a particular focus on women who have an unintended pregnancy. Integration of maternal healthcare services with family planning services is also required to ensure CoC.

Modelling improved efficiency in healthcare referral systems for the urban poor using a geo-referenced health facility data: the case of Sylhet City Corporation, Bangladesh

Background

An effective referral system is critical to ensuring access to appropriate and timely healthcare services. In pluralistic healthcare systems such as Bangladesh, referral inefficiencies due to distance, diversion to inappropriate facilities and unsuitable hours of service are common, particularly for the urban poor. This study explores the reported referral networks of urban facilities and models alternative scenarios that increase referral efficiency in terms of distance and service hours.

Methods

Road network and geo-referenced facility census data from Sylhet City Corporation were used to examine referral linkages between public, private and NGO facilities for maternal and emergency/critical care services, respectively. Geographic distances were calculated using ArcGIS Network Analyst extension through a “distance matrix” which was imported into a relational database. For each reported referral linkage, an alternative referral destination was identified that provided the same service at a closer distance as indicated by facility geo-location and distance analysis. Independent sample t-tests with unequal variances were performed to analyze differences in distance for each alternate scenario modelled.

Results

The large majority of reported referrals were received by public facilities. Taking into account distance, cost and hours of service, alternative scenarios for emergency services can augment referral efficiencies by 1.5–1.9 km (p < 0.05) compared to 2.5–2.7 km in the current scenario. For maternal health services, modeled alternate referrals enabled greater referral efficiency if directed to private and NGO-managed facilities, while still ensuring availability after working-hours. These referral alternatives also decreased the burden on Sylhet City’s major public tertiary hospital, where most referrals were directed. Nevertheless, associated costs may be disadvantageous for the urban poor.

Conclusions

For both maternal and emergency/critical care services, significant distance reductions can be achieved for public, NGO and private facilities that avert burden on Sylhet City’s largest public tertiary hospital. GIS-informed analyses can help strengthen coordination between service providers and contribute to more effective and equitable referral systems in Bangladesh and similar countries.

Effect of unintended pregnancy on skilled antenatal care uptake in Bangladesh: analysis of national survey data

Background

Around 48% of all pregnancies in low- and middle-income countries are unintended. Unintended pregnancy may contribute to lower use of antenatal care (ANC); however, current research in the area is largely inconclusive due to the methodological approaches applied.

Methods

Responses from 4493 women extracted from the 2014 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) were used to assess the association between unintended pregnancy and subsequent uptake of at least one and at least four skilled ANC visits. For this, Bayesian multilevel logistic regression models with informative priors (representing a range of values within which the researcher is certain the true effect of the parameters included lies) were used, adjusting for other factors that affect ANC uptake. Informative priors were selected from the BDHS data collected in 2004, 2007, and 2011.

Results

Around 64% of women in Bangladesh who had at least one pregnancy within 3 years prior to the survey (that ended in a live birth) received ANC at least once, and of these around 32% used ANC at least four times. Mistimed (aOR, 0.73, 95% Cred I, 0.66–0.81) and unwanted (aOR, 0.69, 95% Cred I, 0.64–0.75) pregnancy were associated with reduced odds of attending the recommended minimum of four skilled ANC visits compared with wanted pregnancy. These likelihoods were even lower for at least one skilled ANC visit among women with a mistimed (aOR, 0.59, 95% Cred I, 0.53–0.65) or an unwanted pregnancy (aOR, 0.67, 95% Cred I, 0.61–0.74) than women with a wanted pregnancy.

Conclusions

In Bangladesh, more than one-quarter of women who report an unintended pregnancy at conception and do not terminate the pregnancy are at high risk of not using ANC. It is important for policies to include women with unintended pregnancy in mainstream healthcare services. This will increase the use of ANC and reduce associated adverse consequences.

Keeping afloat: a case study tracing the emergence of drowning prevention as a health issue in Bangladesh 1999-2017

BACKGROUND

Drowning is a leading cause of child death in Bangladesh. The present study investigated the emergence of drowning reduction as a priority within Bangladesh and the position it currently holds on the national policy agenda.

METHODS

This case study documents the evolution of policy responses to drowning, reporting on data from semistructured interviews and a document analysis. To identify key factors that have facilitated the prioritisation of drowning prevention, data were synthesised using Shiffman and Smith's 2007 Policy Prioritisation Framework. Furthermore, an inductive approach was used to identify key themes unique to drowning prevention that were not embedded in the framework.

RESULTS

Four key phases of policy development for drowning prevention were distinguishable: (1) identification of issue and the emergence of actor support; (2) enhanced leadership and the accumulation of issue characteristics; (3) the formation of an internal frame and its impact on global support; and (4) enhanced national recognition and supportive global normative factors. Four additional themes unique to the case of drowning were also identified: competing health priorities, limited issue awareness, shift of disease burden to non-communicable diseases and the multisectoral nature of drowning.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates that the level of political prioritisation given to drowning prevention has evolved over the last decade and a half. A comprehensive understanding of factors that have elevated the issue onto the policy agenda will ensure future stakeholder engagement activities can be designed to foster deeper and more sustained commitment by key actors and organisations.

The influence of corruption and governance in the delivery of frontline health care services in the public sector: a scoping review of current and future prospects in low and middle-income countries of south and south-east Asia

BACKGROUND

The dynamic intersection of a pluralistic health system, large informal sector, and poor regulatory environment have provided conditions favourable for 'corruption' in the LMICs of south and south-east Asia region. 'Corruption' works to undermine the UHC goals of achieving equity, quality, and responsiveness including financial protection, especially while delivering frontline health care services. This scoping review examines current situation regarding health sector corruption at frontlines of service delivery in this region, related policy perspectives, and alternative strategies currently being tested to address this pervasive phenomenon.

METHODS

A scoping review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) was conducted, using three search engines i.e., PubMed, SCOPUS and Google Scholar. A total of 15 articles and documents on corruption and 18 on governance were selected for analysis. A PRISMA extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist was filled-in to complete this report. Data were extracted using a pre-designed template and analysed by 'mixed studies review' method.

RESULTS

Common types of corruption like informal payments, bribery and absenteeism identified in the review have largely financial factors as the underlying cause. Poor salary and benefits, poor incentives and motivation, and poor governance have a damaging impact on health outcomes and the quality of health care services. These result in high out-of-pocket expenditure, erosion of trust in the system, and reduced service utilization. Implementing regulations remain constrained not only due to lack of institutional capacity but also political commitment. Lack of good governance encourage frontline health care providers to bend the rules of law and make centrally designed anti-corruption measures largely in-effective. Alternatively, a few bottom-up community-engaged interventions have been tested showing promising results. The challenge is to scale up the successful ones for measurable impact.

CONCLUSIONS

Corruption and lack of good governance in these countries undermine the delivery of quality essential health care services in an equitable manner, make it costly for the poor and disadvantaged, and results in poor health outcomes. Traditional measures to combat corruption have largely been ineffective, necessitating the need for innovative thinking if UHC is to be achieved by 2030.

Provider performance and facility readiness for managing infections in young infants in primary care facilities in rural Bangladesh

BACKGROUND

Neonatal infections remain a leading cause of newborn deaths globally. In 2015, WHO issued guidelines for managing possible serious bacterial infection (PSBI) in young infants (0-59 days) using simplified antibiotic regimens when compliance with hospital referral is not feasible. Bangladesh was one of the first countries to adopt WHO's guidelines for implementation. We report results of an implementation research study that assessed facility readiness and provider performance in three rural sub-districts of Bangladesh during August 2015-August 2016.

METHODS

This study took place in 19 primary health centers. Facility readiness was assessed using checklists completed by study staff at three time points. To assess provider performance, we extracted data for all infection cases from facility registers and compared providers' diagnosis and treatment against the guidelines. We plotted classification and dosage errors across the study period and superimposed a locally weighted smoothed (LOWESS) curve to analyze changes in performance over time. Focus group discussions (N = 2) and in-depth interviews (N = 28) with providers were conducted to identify barriers and facilitators for facility readiness and provider performance.

RESULTS

At baseline, none of the facilities had adequate supply of antibiotics. During the 10-month period, 606 sick infants with signs of infection presented at the study facilities. Classification errors were identified in 14.9% (N = 90/606) of records. For infants receiving the first dose(s) of antibiotic treatment (N = 551), dosage errors were identified in 22.9% (N = 126/551) of the records. Distribution of errors varied by facility (35.7% [IQR: 24.7-57.4%]) and infection severity. Errors were highest at the beginning of the study period and decreased over time. Qualitative data suggest errors in early implementation were due to changes in providers' assessment and treatment practices, including confusion about classifying an infant with multiple signs of infection, and some providers' concerns about the efficacy of simplified antibiotic regimens.

CONCLUSIONS

Strategies to monitor early performance and targeted supports are important for enhancing implementation fidelity when introducing complex guidelines in new settings. Future research should examine providers' assessment of effectiveness of simplified treatment and address misconceptions about superiority of broader spectrum antibiotics for treating community-acquired neonatal infections in this context.

Investigating the process of evidence-informed health policymaking in Bangladesh: a systematic review

Over the last four decades, Bangladesh has made considerable improvements in population health, this is in part due to the use of evidence to inform policymaking. This systematic review aims to better understand critical factors that have facilitated the diffusion of scientific evidence into multiple phases of health policymaking in Bangladesh. To do this an existing policy framework designed by Shiffman and Smith in 2007, was used to extract and synthesize data from selected policy analyses. This framework was used to ensure the content, context and actors involved with evidence-informed policymaking were considered in each case where research had helped shape a health policy. The 'PRISMA Checklist' was employed to design pre-specified eligibility criteria for the selection of information sources, search strategy, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and process of data extraction and synthesis. Through our systematic search conducted from February to May 2017, we initially identified 1859 articles; after removal of duplicates, followed by the screening of titles, abstracts and full-texts, 24 articles were included in the analysis. Health policy issues included the following topics: maternal and child health, tobacco control, reproductive health, infectious disease control and the impact and sustainability of knowledge translation platforms. Findings suggested that research evidence that could be used to meet key targets associated with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were more likely to be considered as a political (and therefore policy) priority. Furthermore, avenues of engagement between research organizations and the government as well as collective action from civil-society organizations were important for the diffusion of evidence into policies. Through this article, it is apparent that the interface between evidence and policy formulation occurs when evidence is, disseminated by a cohesive policy-network with strong leadership and framed to deliver solutions for problems on both the domestic and global development agenda.

Caregiver acceptability of the guidelines for managing young infants with possible serious bacterial infections (PSBI) in primary care facilities in rural Bangladesh

INTRODUCTION

Many infants with possible serious bacterial infections (PSBI) do not receive inpatient treatment because hospital care may not be affordable, accessible, or acceptable for families. In 2015, WHO issued guidelines for managing PSBI in young infants (0-59 days) with simpler antibiotic regimens when hospital care is not feasible. Bangladesh adopted WHO's guidelines for implementation in outpatient primary health centers. We report results of an implementation research study that assessed caregiver acceptability of the guidelines in three rural sub-districts of Bangladesh during early implementation (October 2015-August 2016).

METHODS

We included 19 outpatient primary health centers involved in the initial rollout of the infection management guidelines. We extracted data for all PSBI cases (N = 192) from facility registers to identify gaps in referral feasibility, simplified antibiotic treatment, and follow-up. Focus group discussions (FGD) and in-depth interviews (IDI) were conducted with both caregivers (6 FGDs; 23 IDIs) and providers (2 FGDs; 28 IDIs) to assess caregiver acceptability of the guidelines.

RESULTS

Referral to the hospital was not feasible for many families (83.3%; N = 160/192) and acceptance varied by infection severity. Barriers to referral feasibility included economic and household factors, and previous experiences with poor quality of care at the sub-district hospital. Conversely, providers and caregivers indicated high acceptability of simplified antibiotic treatment. 80% (N = 96/120) of infants with clinical severe infection for whom referral was not feasible returned to the facility for the second antibiotic injection. Some providers reported developing local solutions-including engaging informal providers in treatment of the infant-to address organizational barriers and promote treatment compliance. Follow-up of young infants receiving simplified treatment is critical, but only 67.4% (N = 87/129) of infants received fourth day follow-up. Some providers' reported deviations from the guidelines that shifted responsibility of follow-up to the caregiver, which may have contributed to lapses.

CONCLUSION

Caregivers' perception of trust and communication with providers were influential in caregiver acceptability of care. Few caregivers accepted referral to the sub-district hospital, suggesting low acceptability of this option. When referral was not feasible, many caregivers reported satisfaction with simplified antibiotic treatment. Local solutions described by providers require further examination in this context to assess the safety and potential value of these strategies in outpatient treatment. Our findings suggest strengthening providers' interpersonal skills could improve caregiver acceptability of the guidelines.

Assessment of staffing needs for physicians and nurses at Upazila health complexes in Bangladesh using WHO workload indicators of staffing need (WISN) method

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to assess the current workload and staffing need of physicians and nurses for delivering optimum healthcare services at the Upazila Health Complexes (UpHCs) in Bangladesh.

DESIGN

Mixed-methods, combining qualitative (eg, document reviews, key informant interviews, in-depth interviews, observations) and quantitative methods (time-motion survey).

SETTING

Study was conducted in 24 health facilities of Bangladesh. However, UpHCs being the nucleus of primary healthcare in Bangladesh, this manuscript limits itself to reporting the findings from the providers at four UpHCs under this project.

PARTICIPANTS

18 physicians and 51 nurses, males and females.

PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES

Workload components were defined based on inputs from five experts, refined by nine service providers. Using WHO Workload Indicator of Staffing Need (WISN) software, standard workload, category allowance factor, individual allowance factor, total required number of staff, WISN difference and WISN ratio were calculated.

RESULTS

Physicians have very high (WISN ratio 0.43) and nurse high (WISN ratio 0.69) workload pressure. 50% of nurses' time are occupied with support activities, instead of nursing care. There are different workloads among the same staff category in different health facilities. If only the vacant posts are filled, the workload is reduced. In fact, sanctioned number of physicians and nurses is more than actual need.

CONCLUSIONS

It is evident that high workload pressures prevail for physicians and nurses at the UpHCs. This reveals high demand for these health workforces in the respective subdistricts. WISN method can aid the policy-makers in optimising utilisation of existing human resources. Therefore, the government should adopt flexible health workforce planning and recruitment policy to manage the patient load and disease burden. WISN should, thus, be incorporated as a planning tool for health managers. There should be a regular review of health workforce management decisions, and these should be amended based on periodic reviews.

Understanding incentive preferences of community health workers using discrete choice experiments: a multicountry protocol for Kenya, Uganda, Bangladesh and Haiti

INTRODUCTION

There is a renewed global interest in improving community health worker (CHW) programmes. For CHW programmes to be effective, key intervention design factors which contribute to the performance of CHWs need to be identified. The recent WHO guidelines recommends the combination of financial and non-financial incentives to improve CHW performance. However, evidence gaps remain as to what package of incentives will improve their performance in different country contexts. This study aims to evaluate CHW incentive preferences to improve performance and retention which will strengthen CHW programmes and help governments leverage limited resources appropriately.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

A discrete choice experiment (DCE) will be conducted with CHWs in Bangladesh, Haiti, Kenya and Uganda with different levels of maturity of CHWs programmes. This will be carried out in two phases. Phase 1 will involve preliminary qualitative research including focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informant interviews to develop the DCE design which will include attributes relevant to the CHW country settings. Phase 2 will involve a DCE survey with CHWs, presenting them with a series of job choices with varying attribute levels. An orthogonal design will be used to generate the choice sets for the surveys. The surveys will be administered in locally-appropriate languages to at least 150 CHWs from each of the cadres in each country. Conditional and mixed multinomial logit (MMNL) models will be used for the estimation of stated preferences.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

This study has been reviewed and approved by the Population Council's Institutional Review Board in New York, and appropriate ethics review boards in Kenya, Uganda, Bangladesh and Haiti. The results of the study will be disseminated through in-country dissemination workshops, meetings with country-level stakeholders and policy working groups, print media, online blogs and peer-reviewed journals.

A rapid assessment of the political economy of health at district level, with a focus on maternal, newborn and child health, in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal and the Philippines

Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face many challenges and competing demands in the health sector, including maternal and newborn mortality. The allocation of financial and human resources for maximum health impact is important for social and economic development. Governments must prioritize carefully and allocate scarce resources to maximum effect, but also in ways that are politically acceptable, financially and institutionally feasible, and sustainable. Political economy analysis (PEA)-that gets what, when and why-can help explain that prioritization process. We used PEA to investigate how four Asian LMICs (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal and the Philippines) allocate and utilize resources for maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH). Using mixed research methods including a literature review, field interviews at national and sub-national level, and policy, process and budget analysis in each country, we examined three political economy issues: (1) do these countries demonstrably prioritize MNCH at policy level; (2) if so, is this reflected in the allocation of financial and other resources and (3) if resources are allocated to MNCH, do they achieve the intended outputs and outcomes through actual programme implementation? We also considered the influence of transnational developments. We found that all four countries demonstrate political commitment to health, including MNCH. However, the health sector receives comparatively low public financing, governments often do not follow through on plans or pronouncements, and capacity for related action varies widely. Poor governance and decentralization, lack of data for monitoring and evaluation of progress, and weak public sector human resource capacity were frequent problems; engagement of the private or non-government sectors is an important consideration. Opportunities exist to greatly improve equity and MNCH outcomes in these nations, using a mix of evidence, improved governance, social engagement and the media to influence decisions, increase resource allocation to and improve accountability in the health sector.

Pathways to antibiotics in Bangladesh: A qualitative study investigating how and when households access medicine including antibiotics for humans or animals when they are ill

Background

To understand how to reduce antibiotic use, greater knowledge is needed about the complexities of access in countries with loose regulation or enforcement. This study aimed to explore how households in Bangladesh were accessing antimicrobials for themselves and their domestic animals.

Methods

In-depth interviews were conducted with 48 households in one urban and one rural area. Households were purposively sampled from two lower income strata, prioritising those with under 5-year olds, older adults, household animals and minority groups. Households where someone was currently ill with a suspected infection (13 households) were invited for a follow-up interview. Framework analysis was used to explore access to healthcare and medicines.

Findings

People accessed medicines for themselves through five pathways: drugs shops, private clinics, government/charitable hospitals, community/family planning clinics, and specialised/private hospitals. Drug shops provided direct access to medicines for common, less serious and acute illnesses. For persistent or serious illnesses, the healthcare pathway may include contacts with several of these settings, but often relied on medicines provided by drug shops. In the 13 households with an unwell family member, most received at least one course of antibiotics for this illness. Multiple and incomplete dosing were common even when prescribed by a qualified doctor. Antibiotics were identified by their high cost compared to other medicines. Cost was a reported barrier to purchasing full courses of antibiotics. Few households in the urban area kept household animals. In this rural area, government animal health workers provided most care for large household animals (cows), but drug shops were also important.

Conclusions

In Bangladesh, unregulated drug shops provide an essential route to medicines including those prescribed in the formal sector. Wherever licensed suppliers are scarce and expensive, regulations which prohibit this supply risk removing access entirely for many people.

Impact evaluation of contracting primary health care services in urban Bangladesh

BACKGROUND

The Urban Primary Health Care Project (UPHCP) was implemented by the Government of Bangladesh in response to rapid urbanization and growing inequalities in access to and quality of primary health care. The goal of the project was to improve health status of the urban poor living in city corporations and municipalities through the provision of health care services by NGOs that are contracted through public-private partnership. The first phase of the project started in 1998 and the project is currently in its fourth phase covering more urban areas than the first three phases. This study evaluates the impact of the second phase project (UPHCP-II) on health outcomes, mainly child diarrhea, acute respiratory infection, antenatal and postnatal care, skilled birth attendance, breastfeeding prevalence, contraceptive prevalence, sexually transmitted infections, and HIV/AIDS awareness.

METHODS

The effect of the project was estimated through propensity score matching between project and non-project areas comparing baseline and endline surveys over a six-year period from 2006 to 2012. An innovation of this study is the recalibration of the sampling weights that allows the use of these two independent surveys in impact evaluation.

RESULTS

Over the six-year period, UPHCP-II improved the health status of the population in project areas compared to non-project areas. The study found significant improvement in health outcomes in terms of reduced diarrhea and acute respiratory infection in children, which explains the downward trend in child mortality rate. Moreover, the project also improved antenatal care and skilled birth attendance. Contraceptive prevalence and HIV/AIDS awareness and avoidance increased, and sexually transmitted infections decreased.

CONCLUSIONS

UPHCP-II was effective in achieving its health outcome targets, while previous studies show that it was efficient in the delivery of health care and clients were highly satisfied because health facilities were in close proximity, and doctors and staff were perceived as responsive in delivering high quality of care. The results of this study could help inform future design and implementation of urban health interventions that involve contracting primary health care service delivery in Bangladesh and other similar settings.

Early implementation of guidelines for managing young infants with possible serious bacterial infection in Bangladesh

Neonatal infections remain a leading cause of newborn deaths globally. In 2015, WHO issued guidelines for managing possible serious bacterial infection (PSBI) in young infants (0-59 days) with simpler antibiotic regimens if hospital referral is not feasible. Bangladesh was one of the first countries to adapt WHO guidance into national guidelines for implementation in primary healthcare facilities. Early implementation was led by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) in 10 subdistricts of Bangladesh with support from USAID's MaMoni Health System Strengthening project. This mixed methods implementation research case study explores programme feasibility and acceptability through analysis of service delivery data from 4590 sick young infants over a 15-month period, qualitative interviews with providers and MOHFW managers and documentation by project staff. Multistakeholder collaboration was key to ensuring facility readiness and feasibility of programme delivery. For the 514 (11%) infants classified as PSBI, provider adherence to prereferral treatment and follow-up varied across infection subcategories. Many clinical severe infection cases for whom referral was not feasible received the recommended two doses of injectable gentamicin and follow-up, suggesting delivery of simplified antibiotic treatment is feasible. However, prereferral antibiotic treatment was low for infants whose families accepted hospital referral, which highlights the need for additional focus on managing these cases in training and supervision. Systems for tracking sick infants that accept hospital referral are needed, and follow-up of all PSBI cases requires strengthening to ensure sick infants receive the recommended treatment, to monitor outcomes and assess the effectiveness of the programme. Only 11.2% (95% CI 10.3 to 12.1) of the expected PSBI cases sought care from the selected service delivery points in the programme period. However, increasing trends in utilisation suggest improved awareness and acceptability of services among families of young infants as the programme matured. Future programme activities should include interviews with caregivers to explore the complexities around referral feasibility and acceptability of simplified antibiotic treatment.

The state of hypertension care in 44 low-income and middle-income countries: a cross-sectional study of nationally representative individual-level data from 1·1 million adults

BACKGROUND

Evidence from nationally representative studies in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) on where in the hypertension care continuum patients are lost to care is sparse. This information, however, is essential for effective targeting of interventions by health services and monitoring progress in improving hypertension care. We aimed to determine the cascade of hypertension care in 44 LMICs-and its variation between countries and population groups-by dividing the progression in the care process, from need of care to successful treatment, into discrete stages and measuring the losses at each stage.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional study, we pooled individual-level population-based data from 44 LMICs. We first searched for nationally representative datasets from the WHO Stepwise Approach to Surveillance (STEPS) from 2005 or later. If a STEPS dataset was not available for a LMIC (or we could not gain access to it), we conducted a systematic search for survey datasets; the inclusion criteria in these searches were that the survey was done in 2005 or later, was nationally representative for at least three 10-year age groups older than 15 years, included measured blood pressure data, and contained data on at least two hypertension care cascade steps. Hypertension was defined as a systolic blood pressure of at least 140 mm Hg, diastolic blood pressure of at least 90 mm Hg, or reported use of medication for hypertension. Among those with hypertension, we calculated the proportion of individuals who had ever had their blood pressure measured; had been diagnosed with hypertension; had been treated for hypertension; and had achieved control of their hypertension. We weighted countries proportionally to their population size when determining this hypertension care cascade at the global and regional level. We disaggregated the hypertension care cascade by age, sex, education, household wealth quintile, body-mass index, smoking status, country, and region. We used linear regression to predict, separately for each cascade step, a country's performance based on gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, allowing us to identify countries whose performance fell outside of the 95% prediction interval.

FINDINGS

Our pooled dataset included 1 100 507 participants, of whom 192 441 (17·5%) had hypertension. Among those with hypertension, 73·6% of participants (95% CI 72·9-74·3) had ever had their blood pressure measured, 39·2% of participants (38·2-40·3) had been diagnosed with hypertension, 29·9% of participants (28·6-31·3) received treatment, and 10·3% of participants (9·6-11·0) achieved control of their hypertension. Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean generally achieved the best performance relative to their predicted performance based on GDP per capita, whereas countries in sub-Saharan Africa performed worst. Bangladesh, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan, and Peru performed significantly better on all care cascade steps than predicted based on GDP per capita. Being a woman, older, more educated, wealthier, and not being a current smoker were all positively associated with attaining each of the four steps of the care cascade.

INTERPRETATION

Our study provides important evidence for the design and targeting of health policies and service interventions for hypertension in LMICs. We show at what steps and for whom there are gaps in the hypertension care process in each of the 44 countries in our study. We also identified countries in each world region that perform better than expected from their economic development, which can direct policy makers to important policy lessons. Given the high disease burden caused by hypertension in LMICs, nationally representative hypertension care cascades, as constructed in this study, are an important measure of progress towards achieving universal health coverage.

FUNDING

Harvard McLennan Family Fund, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Expectations of telemedicine health service adoption in rural Bangladesh

This study analyzes the antecedent factors that influence patients' expectations of telemedicine adoption in centres hosted by rural public hospitals in Bangladesh. It examines five antecedents of patients' expectations of telemedicine adoption-self-efficacy, telemedicine experience, knowledge, enjoyment, and prior satisfaction. A conceptual research model was formulated, encompassing a set of hypotheses that were developed and tested by employing partial least squares structural equation modelling. Using a structured survey questionnaire, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among 500 telemedicine users in different rural areas in Bangladesh. Except knowledge, four antecedents significantly contribute to patients' expectations of telemedicine health service adoption explaining 66% of the variance (R²) in expectations. These findings provide support for explaining antecedents to the formation of patients' expectations of telemedicine adoption and the institutionalisation of favourable policy guidelines as an early guidance for the development of successful healthcare industries in Bangladesh and other similar settings. Specific policy interventions and recommendations are provided, including current research limitations leading to opportunities for future research.

The privatisation of healthcare system in Bangladesh

PURPOSE

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that triggered the privatisation of Bangladesh's health sector.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

This study follows systematic reviews in its undertaking and is based on an extensive review of both published and unpublished documents. Different search engines and databases were used to collect the materials. The study takes into account of various research publications, journal articles, government reports, policy and planning documents, relevant press reports/articles, and reports and discussion papers from the World Health Organization, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

FINDINGS

While Bangladesh's healthcare sector has undergone an increasing trend towards privatisation, this move has limited benefits on the overall improvement in the health of the people of Bangladesh. The public sector should remain vital, and the government must remobilise it to provide better provision of healthcare.

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS

The paper focusses only on the public policy aspect of privatisation in healthcare of a country.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

The paper examines the issue of privatisation of healthcare and concludes that privatisation not only makes services more expensive, but also diminishes equity and accountability in the provision of services. The study, first, makes a spate of observations on improving public healthcare resources, which can be of value to key decision makers and stakeholders in the healthcare sector. It also discourages the move towards private sector interventions.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE

This study is an independent explanation of a country's healthcare system. Lesson learned from this study could also be used for developing public policy in similar socio-economic contexts.

'Connecting the dots' for generating a momentum for Universal Health Coverage in Bangladesh: findings from a cross-sectional descriptive study

OBJECTIVE

This study was conducted to explore how and whether, the strategic grants made by the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) in different sectors of health systems in the inception phase were able to 'connect the dots' for 'generating a momentum for Universal Health Coverage (UHC)' in the country.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional descriptive study, using document review and qualitative methods.

SETTING

Bangladesh, 17 UHC-related projects funded by the RF Transforming Health Systems (THS) initiative during 2010-2013.

DATA

Available reports of the completed and on-going UHC projects, policy documents of the government relevant to UHC, key-informant interviews and feedback from grant recipients and relevant stakeholders in the policy and practice.

OUTCOME MEASURES

Key policy initiatives undertaken for implementing UHC activities by the government post grants disbursement.

RESULTS

The RF THS grants simultaneously targeted and connected the academia, the public and non-profit development sectors and news media for awareness-building and advocacy on UHC, develop relevant policies and capacity for implementation including evidence generation. This strategy helped relevant stakeholders to come together to discuss and debate the core concepts, scopes and modalities of UHC in an attempt to reach a consensus. Additionally, experiences gained from implementation of the pilot projects helped in identifying possible entry points for initiating UHC activities in a low resource setting like Bangladesh.

CONCLUSIONS

During early years of UHC-related activities in Bangladesh, strategic investments of the RF THS initiative played a catalytic role in sensitising and mobilising different constituencies for concerted activities and undertaking necessary first steps. Learnings from this strategy may be of help to countries under similar conditions of 'low resource, apparent commitment, but poor governance,' on their journey towards UHC.

Exploratory qualitative study to understand the underlying motivations and strategies of the private for-profit healthcare sector in urban Bangladesh

OBJECTIVES

This paper explores the underlying motivations and strategies of formal small and medium-sized formal private for-profit sector hospitals and clinics in urban Bangladesh and their implications for quality and access.

METHODS

This exploratory qualitative study was conducted in Dhaka, Sylhet and Khulna City Corporations. Data collection methods included key informant interviews (20) with government and private sector leaders, in-depth interviews (30) with clinic owners, managers and providers and exit interviews (30) with healthcare clients.

RESULTS

Profit generation is a driving force behind entry into the private healthcare business and the provision of services. However, non-financial motivations are also emphasised such as aspirations to serve the disadvantaged, personal ambition, desire for greater social status, obligations to continue family business and adverse family events.The discussion of private sector motivations and strategies is framed using the Business Policy Model. This model is comprised of three components: products and services, and efforts to make these attractive including patient-friendly discounts and service-packages, and building 'good' doctor-patient relationships; the market environment, cultivated using medical brokers and referral fees to bring in fresh clientele, and receipt of pharmaceutical incentives; and finally, organisational capabilities, in this case overcoming human resource shortages by relying on medical staff from the public sector, consultant specialists, on-call and less experienced doctors in training, unqualified nursing staff and referring complicated cases to public facilities.

CONCLUSIONS

In the context of low public sector capacity and growing healthcare demands in urban Bangladesh, private for-profit engagement is critical to achieving universal health coverage (UHC). Given the informality of the sector, the nascent state of healthcare financing, and a weak regulatory framework, the process of engagement must be gradual. Further research is needed to explore how engagement in UHC can be enabled while maintaining profitability. Incentives that support private sector efforts to improve quality, affordability and accountability are a first step in building this relationship.

Perceptions of appropriate treatment among the informal allopathic providers: insights from a qualitative study in two peri-urban areas in Bangladesh

Background

How the informal providers deliver health services are not well understood in Bangladesh. However, their practices are often considered inappropriate and unsafe. This study attempted to fill-in this knowledge gap by exploring their perceptions about diagnosis and appropriate treatment, as well as identifying existing barriers to provide appropriate treatment.

Methods

This exploratory study was conducted in two peri-urban areas of metropolitan Dhaka. Study participants were selected purposively, and an interview guideline was used to collect in-depth data from thirteen providers. Content analysis was applied through data immersion and themes identification, including coding and sub-coding, as well as data display matrix creation to draw conclusion.

Results

The providers relied mainly on the history and presenting symptoms for diagnosis. Information and guidelines provided by the pharmaceutical representatives were important aids in their diagnosis and treatment decision making. Lack of training, diagnostic tools and medicine, along with consumer demands for certain medicine i.e. antibiotics, were cited as barriers to deliver appropriate care. Effective and supportive supervision, training, patient education, and availability of diagnostics and guidelines in Bangla were considered necessary in overcoming these barriers.

Conclusion

Informal providers lack the knowledge and skills for delivering appropriate treatment and care. As they provide health services for substantial proportion of the population, it’s crucial that policy makers become cognizant of the fact and take measures to remedy them. This is even more urgent if government’s goal to reach universal health coverage by 2030 is to be achieved.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-019-4254-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Antenatal care and skilled birth attendance in Bangladesh are influenced by female education and family affordability: BDHS 2014

OBJECTIVES

Antenatal care (ANC) during pregnancy and skilled birth attendance (SBA) during delivery are important policy concerns to reduce maternal deaths. Bangladesh is one of the developing countries which has made remarkable progress in both services during the last couple of decades by improving the SBA service rate from 16% in 2004 to 42.1% in 2014. However, this rate remains below the targeted level (50%) of the Health Population and Nutrition Sector Development Program set by the Ministry of the Health and Family Welfare of Bangladesh. This article explored the sociodemographic factors associated with the ANC and SBA service attainment. Furthermore, the possible implication of using ANC on SBA was also investigated.

STUDY DESIGN

The study followed a cross-sectional design using the Bangladesh demographic and health survey 2014, with a sample of size 4603 women with at least one live birth 3 years preceding the survey.

METHODS

Following a bivariate analysis, linear mixed-effect models were used to assess the relationship between sociodemographic factors and the outcome indicators (ANC and SBA). Finally, the association between SBA and ANC was evaluated through another mixed-effect model.

RESULTS

Wealth index, participation in household decisions, and partner's and respondent's education were significant predictors of ANC; whereas, residence, age at first birth, wealth index, working status, participation in household decisions, and partner and respondent's education were significant for SBA. Female education and household affordability were the strongest predictors for both ANC and SBA. ANC showed significant association with SBA as women accessing essential ANC during delivery seemed to be 4 times more likely (95% confidence interval: 3.05-5.93) to avail SBA services.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, four factors were significant: residence, wealth index, education, and ANC access. Women residing in urban areas, having higher financial solvency, completing higher education, and accessing ANC by skilled personnel were more likely to receive SBA at delivery than their counterparts. Accessibility to skilled care during pregnancy leads to increased professional care during delivery. Thus, policies to encourage women and heads of families to seek skilled care during pregnancy would be beneficial to reach the maternal healthcare targets of Bangladesh.

Reducing Inequity in Urban Health: Have the Intra-urban Differentials in Reproductive Health Service Utilization and Child Nutritional Outcome Narrowed in Bangladesh?

Bangladesh is undergoing a rapid urbanization process. About one-third of the population of major cities in the country live in slums, which are areas that exhibit pronounced concentrations of factors that negatively affect health and nutrition. People living in slums face greater challenge to improve their health than other parts of the country, which fuels the growing intra-urban health inequities. Two rounds of the Bangladesh Urban Health Survey (UHS), conducted in 2013 and 2006, were designed to examine the reproductive health status and service utilization between slum and non-slum residents. We applied an adaptation of the difference-in-differences (DID) model to pooled data from the 2006 and 2013 UHS rounds to examine changes over time in intra-urban differences between slums and non-slums in key health outcomes and service utilization and to identify the factors associated with the reduction in intra-urban gaps. In terms of change in intra-urban differentials during 2006-2013, DID regression analysis estimated that the gap between slums and non-slums for skilled birth attendant (SBA) during delivery significantly decreased. DID regression analysis also estimated that the gap between slums and non-slums for use of modern contraceptives among currently married women also narrowed significantly, and the gap reversed in favor of slums. However, the DID estimates indicate a small but not statistically significant reduction in the gap between slums and non-slums for child nutritional status. Results from extended DID regression model indicate that availability of community health workers in urban areas appears to have played a significant role in reducing the gap in SBA. The urban population in Bangladesh is expected to grow rapidly in the coming decades. Wide disparities between urban slums and non-slums can potentially push country performance off track during the post-2015 era, unless the specific health needs of the expanding slum communities are addressed. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic explanation and quantification of the role of various factors for improving intra-urban health equity in Bangladesh using nationally representative data. The findings provide a strong rationale for continuing and expanding community-based reproductive health services in urban areas by the NGOs with a focus on slum populations.

Universal Health Coverage in Bangladesh: Activities, Challenges, and Suggestions

Catastrophic health expenditure forces 5.7 million Bangladeshis into poverty. Inequity is present in most of health indicators across social, economic, and demographic parameters. This study explores the existing health policy environment and current activities to further the progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the challenges faced in these endeavors. This qualitative study involved document reviews (n=22) and key informant interviews (KII, n=15). Thematic analysis of texts (themes: activities around UHC, implementation barriers, suggestions) was done using the manual coding technique. We found that Bangladesh has a comprehensive set of policies for UHC, e.g., a health-financing strategy and staged recommendations for pooling of funds to create a national health insurance scheme and expand financial protection for health. Progress has been made in a number of areas including the roll out of the essential package of health services for all, expansion of access to primary health care services (support by donors), and the piloting of health insurance which has been piloted in three sub districts. Political commitment for these areas is strong. However, there are barriers pertaining to the larger policy level which includes a rigid public financing structure dating from the colonial era. While others pertain to the health sector's implementation shortfalls including issues of human resources, political interference, monitoring, and supervision, most key informants discussed demand-side barriers too, such as sociocultural disinclination, historical mistrust, and lack of empowerment. To overcome these, several policies have been recommended, e.g., redesigning the public finance structure, improving governance and regulatory mechanism, specifying code of conduct for service providers, introducing health-financing reform, and collaborating with different sectors. To address the implementation barriers, recommendations include improving service quality, strengthening overall health systems, improving health service management, and improving monitoring and supervision. Addressing demand-side barriers, such as patient education and community empowerment, is also needed. Research and advocacy are required to address crosscutting barriers such as the lack of common understanding of UHC.

Selected models and the classification of health care systems

Health care is a fundamental element of each country’s social policy. It is mainly organised and implemented through the adoption of a certain political framework (defined objectives and priorities), strategic and operational management (planning, organising, motivating and controlling), and generation of resources (e.g. defined activities of collection and distribution of financial resources, training of medical professionals, and the purchase of technology and pharmaceuticals). These principles are either formulated on the basis of already functioning health care models or bespoke models are being created. An important element of a given model is to define its mission (the reasons for its creation and operation), while such elements as the functions, objectives, resources and methods of operation attribute to its individual properties and values. Health care systems may be organised differently. Their main distinguishing features are the ownership (public, private or mixed), sources of financing (public, private or mixed) and management (centralised, dispersed), or they can be structured with regard to political aspects (single-centric, multi-centric and pluralistic). This article, based on the latest scientific developments, presents the historical outline of the selected models for health care systems and the new concepts regarding their classification. The article also offers theoretical analyses of those health systems, which have become the models for others. The aim of this article is to present the classification and the characteristics of the selected models for health care systems, both from the historical perspective and the perspective of those currently in operation. The documents analysis method was used, which included the leading positions in the Polish and foreign literature, in the field of the issues addressed, as well as the literature published by the related institutions. This topic is already being discussed within the literature of the subject, nevertheless it is still relevant and, due to its undeniable importance, deserves further examination because it directly or indirectly concerns every human being.