OBJECTIVE: To support evidence informed decision-making, we systematically examine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of community engagement interventions on routine childhood immunisation outcomes in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) and identify contextual, design and implementation features associated with effectiveness. DESIGN: Mixed-methods systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: 21 databases of academic and grey literature and 12 additional websites were searched in May 2019 and May 2020. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: We included experimental and quasi-experimental impact evaluations of community engagement interventions considering outcomes related to routine child immunisation in LMICs. No language, publication type, or date restrictions were imposed. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Two independent researchers extracted summary data from published reports and appraised quantitative risk of bias using adapted Cochrane tools. Random effects meta-analysis was used to examine effects on the primary outcome, full immunisation coverage. RESULTS: =94.46). The most common source of risk to the quality of evidence (risk of bias) was outcome reporting bias: most studies used caregiver-reported measures of vaccinations received by a child in the absence or incompleteness of immunisation cards. Reasons consistently cited for intervention success include appropriate intervention design, including building in community engagement features; addressing common contextual barriers of immunisation and leveraging facilitators; and accounting for existing implementation constraints. The median intervention cost per treated child per vaccine dose (excluding the cost of vaccines) to increase absolute immunisation coverage by one percent was US$3.68. CONCLUSION: Community engagement interventions are successful in improving outcomes related to routine child immunisation. The findings are robust to exclusion of studies assessed as high risk of bias.
Monica Jain, Shannon Shisler, Charlotte E. Lane et al.
Children’s early experiences and environments profoundly impact their development; therefore, ensuring the well-being of children through effective supports and services is critical. Evaluation is a tool that can be used to understand the effectiveness of early childhood development (ECD) practices, programs, and policies. A deeper understanding of the evaluation landscape in the ECD field is needed at this time. The purpose of this scoping review was to explore the state of evaluation in the ECD field across four constructs: community-driven evaluation, culturally responsive evaluation, evaluation capacity building, and evaluation use and influence. A comprehensive search of 7 electronic databases, including Canadian and international literature published in English from 2000 to 2020, was conducted. A total of 30 articles met the inclusion criteria. Findings demonstrate that some studies include aspects of a community-engaged approach to evaluation; however, comprehensive approaches to community-driven evaluation, culturally responsive evaluation, evaluation capacity building, and evaluation use in the field of ECD are not commonly achieved. This review will inform strategies for bridging evaluation gaps in the ECD sector, ultimately equipping organisations with the evaluative tools to improve practices, programs, and policies that impact the children, families, and communities they serve.
Giulia Puinean, Rebecca Gokiert, Mischa Taylor et al.
Maternal education is often considered an important determinant of children's early development. However, there is little empirical evidence on whether it is maternal education that contributes to better developmental outcomes or other ecological factors that relate to both education and children's development. This study used data on 4,874 mother-child (M age = 47.7 months) dyads from Uganda of the 2016 Demographic and Health Survey to assess the effects of maternal education on parenting and children's development. Taking advantage of a natural experiment with an instrumental variables approach, the study identified positive causal impacts of maternal schooling on children's development. Additional years of schooling also increased maternal engagement in stimulating activities, children's attendance to early childhood education programs, and reduced harsh corporal punishment. A mediation analysis suggested that increases in maternal stimulation and children's attendance to early childhood education programs and reductions in harsh corporal punishment partially explain the effects of maternal education on children's development. The positive impacts of education on parenting and child development indicate the need for more efforts to expand access to education in Uganda and other low- and- middle-income countries, including the abolishment of school fees for primary education. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
BACKGROUND: Immunisation plays a major role in reducing childhood morbidity and mortality. Getting children immunised against potentially fatal and debilitating vaccine-preventable diseases remains a challenge despite the availability of efficacious vaccines, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. With the introduction of new vaccines, this becomes increasingly difficult. There is therefore a current need to synthesise the available evidence on the strategies used to bridge this gap. This is a second update of the Cochrane Review first published in 2011 and updated in 2016, and it focuses on interventions for improving childhood immunisation coverage in low- and middle-income countries. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness of intervention strategies to boost demand and supply of childhood vaccines, and sustain high childhood immunisation coverage in low- and middle-income countries. SEARCH METHODS: We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Global Index Medicus (11 July 2022). We searched Embase, LILACS, and Sociological Abstracts (2 September 2014). We searched WHO ICTRP and ClinicalTrials.gov (11 July 2022). In addition, we screened reference lists of relevant systematic reviews for potentially eligible studies, and carried out a citation search for 14 of the included studies (19 February 2020). SELECTION CRITERIA: Eligible studies were randomised controlled trials (RCTs), non-randomised RCTs (nRCTs), controlled before-after studies, and interrupted time series conducted in low- and middle-income countries involving children that were under five years of age, caregivers, and healthcare providers. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We independently screened the search output, reviewed full texts of potentially eligible articles, assessed the risk of bias, and extracted data in duplicate, resolving discrepancies by consensus. We conducted random-effects meta-analyses and used GRADE to assess the certainty of the evidence. MAIN RESULTS: Forty-one studies involving 100,747 participants are included in the review. Twenty studies were cluster-randomised and 15 studies were individually randomised controlled trials. Six studies were quasi-randomised. The studies were conducted in four upper-middle-income countries (China, Georgia, Mexico, Guatemala), 11 lower-middle-income countries (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Nepal, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Zimbabwe), and three lower-income countries (Afghanistan, Mali, Rwanda). The interventions evaluated in the studies were health education (seven studies), patient reminders (13 studies), digital register (two studies), household incentives (three studies), regular immunisation outreach sessions (two studies), home visits (one study), supportive supervision (two studies), integration of immunisation services with intermittent preventive treatment of malaria (one study), payment for performance (two studies), engagement of community leaders (one study), training on interpersonal communication skills (one study), and logistic support to health facilities (one study). We judged nine of the included studies to have low risk of bias; the risk of bias in eight studies was unclear and 24 studies had high risk of bias. We found low-certainty evidence that health education (risk ratio (RR) 1.36, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.15 to 1.62; 6 studies, 4375 participants) and home-based records (RR 1.36, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.75; 3 studies, 4019 participants) may improve coverage with DTP3/Penta 3 vaccine. Phone calls/short messages may have little or no effect on DTP3/Penta 3 vaccine uptake (RR 1.12, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.25; 6 studies, 3869 participants; low-certainty evidence); wearable reminders probably have little or no effect on DTP3/Penta 3 uptake (RR 1.02, 95% CI 0.97 to 1.07; 2 studies, 1567 participants; moderate-certainty evidence). Use of community leaders in combination with provider intervention probably increases the uptake of DTP3/Penta 3 vaccine (RR 1.37, 95% CI 1.11 to 1.69; 1 study, 2020 participants; moderate-certainty evidence). We are uncertain about the effect of immunisation outreach on DTP3/Penta 3 vaccine uptake in children under two years of age (RR 1.32, 95% CI 1.11 to 1.56; 1 study, 541 participants; very low-certainty evidence). We are also uncertain about the following interventions improving full vaccination of children under two years of age: training of health providers on interpersonal communication skills (RR 5.65, 95% CI 3.62 to 8.83; 1 study, 420 participants; very low-certainty evidence), and home visits (RR 1.29, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.45; 1 study, 419 participants; very low-certainty evidence). The same applies to the effect of training of health providers on interpersonal communication skills on the uptake of DTP3/Penta 3 by one year of age (very low-certainty evidence). The integration of immunisation with other services may, however, improve full vaccination (RR 1.29, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.44; 1 study, 1700 participants; low-certainty evidence). AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Health education, home-based records, a combination of involvement of community leaders with health provider intervention, and integration of immunisation services may improve vaccine uptake. The certainty of the evidence for the included interventions ranged from moderate to very low. Low certainty of the evidence implies that the true effect of the interventions might be markedly different from the estimated effect. Further, more rigorous RCTs are, therefore, required to generate high-certainty evidence to inform policy and practice.
Angela Ekanem Oyo-Ita, Olabisi Adejibike Oduwole, Dachi Arikpo et al.
Population-level monitoring of early childhood development (ECD) can inform research and guide national policy. One approach to population-level monitoring is through the design of surveys that (a) are feasible and cost-effective to implement at scale, (b) yield well-validated summaries of children’s holistic development, and (c) can ideally support comparisons across national and cultural contexts. The Early Childhood Development Index 2030 (ECDI2030) is a caregiver-reported household survey designed to achieve these goals for children aged 24-59 months. This paper describes how the ECDI2030 was developed and provides initial results on its reliability, concurrent validity, and gender equity in nationally representative samples from Mexico (N = 1641) and Palestine (N = 1099). Overall, the results support the use of the ECDI2030 for population-level monitoring, but also suggest that the conceptualization of social-emotional development warrants further attention from researchers. Recommendations are made about statistical analyses that can be undertaken to ensure the quality of data collected from ECD assessments in international settings.
Peter F. Halpin, E. Filipa de Castro, Nicole Petrowski et al.
Information on the association between stunting and child development is limited from low-income settings including Bangladesh where 36% of children under- 5 are stunted. This study aimed to explore differences in early childhood development (ECD) between stunted (length-for-age z-score [LAZ] < -2) and nonstunted (LAZ ≥ -2) children in Bangladesh. Children (n = 265) aged 6-24 months who participated in the MAL-ED birth cohort study were evaluated by trained psychologists at 6, 15, and 24 months of age using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-III; child length and weight were measured using standard procedures. ECD scores (z-scores derived from cognitive, motor, language and socio-emotional skills) were compared between stunted, underweight (weight-for-age z-score < -2), and wasted (weight-for-length z-score < -2) children, controlling for child age and sex and maternal age, education, body mass index (BMI), and depressive symptoms. Stunted children had significantly lower ECD scores than their nonstunted peers on cognitive (P = .049), motor (P < .001), language (P < .001) and social-emotional (P = .038) scales where boys had significantly lower fine motor skills compared with girls (P = .027). Mother's schooling and BMI were significant predictors of ECD. Similar to stunting, underweight children had developmental deficits in all domains (cognitive: P = .001; fine motor: P = .039, and P < .001 for both gross motor and total motor; expressive communication: P = .032; total language: P = .013; social-emotional development: P = .017). Wasted children had poor motor skills (P = .006 for the fine motor; P < .001 for both gross motor and total motor development) compared with the nonwasted peers. Early childhood stunting and underweight were associated with poor developmental outcomes in Bangladesh.
Baitun Nahar, Muttaquina Hossain, Mustafa Mahfuz et al.
South Africa's basic education system is dysfunctional. It scores last or close to last in a myriad of metrics and delivers learners with some of the worst literacy and numeracy competencies worldwide. A bimodal distribution in the results exists when learners from the richest socioeconomic quintile are performing adequately well, while learners from the poorest quintiles are failing. This paper presents a system dynamics simulation model to describe the causal linkages between improved early childhood and pre-school learning practices on the education system as a whole. The paper investigates the difference in performance between rich and poor communities. Three interventions explore the research question of whether it is the number of enrolments into early childhood development programs that increases a cohort's school readiness, or rather the quality of the early childhood development programs into which they were enrolled. The results answer the research question for the Western Cape province by showing that increasing the quality of the formal ECD programs leads to a greater percentage of school-ready five year olds than increasing the percentage of enrolled children, but that decreasing community poverty leads to better results than either intervention. The results show the simulation model to be a powerful tool to assist with policy setting and intervention testing for any other province or country by simply changing the input data and calibration.
The present study aims to analyze the psychometric properties and general validity of the Caregiver Reported Early Development Instruments (CREDI) short form for the population-level assessment of early childhood development for Brazilian children under age 3. The study analyzed the acceptability, test-retest reliability, internal consistency and discriminant validity of the CREDI short-form tool. The study also analyzed the concurrent validity of the CREDI with a direct observational measure (Inter-American Development Bank's Regional Project on Child Development Indicators; PRIDI). The full sample includes 1,265 Brazilian caregivers of children from 0 to 35 months (678 of which comprising an in-person sample and 587 an online sample). Results from qualitative interviews suggest overall high rates of acceptability. Most of the items showed adequate test-retest reliability, with an average agreement of 84%. Cronbach's alpha suggested adequate internal consistency/inter-item reliability (α > 0.80) for the CREDI within each of the six age groups (0–5, 6–11, 12–17, 18–23, 24–29 and 30–35 months of age). Multivariate analyses of construct validity showed that a significant proportion of the variance in CREDI scores could be explained by child gender and family characteristics, most importantly caregiver-reported cognitive stimulation in the home (p < 0.0001). Regarding concurrent validity, scores on the CREDI were significantly correlated with overall PRIDI scores within the in-person sample at r = 0.46 (p < 0.001). The results suggested that the CREDI short form is a valid, reliable, and acceptable measure of early childhood development for children under the age of 3 years in Brazil. O presente estudo visa analisar as propriedades psicométricas e a validade geral do formulário curto dos Instrumentos sobre o Desenvolvimento na Primeira Infância Relatado por Cuidados (CREDI) para avaliação em nível populacional do desenvolvimento na primeira infância de crianças brasileiras com menos de três anos. O estudo analisou a aceitabilidade, a confiabilidade teste-reteste, a consistência interna e a validade discriminante da ferramenta CREDI. O estudo também analisou a validade concorrente do CREDI com uma medida observacional direta (Projeto Regional sobre os Indicadores de Desenvolvimento na Infância do Banco Interamericano de Desenvolvimento; PRIDI). A amostra total inclui 1.265 cuidadores brasileiros de crianças de 0 a 35 meses (678 em uma amostra presencial e 587 em uma amostra on-line). Os resultados das entrevistas qualitativas sugerem altas taxas gerais de aceitabilidade. A maior parte dos itens mostrou confiabilidade teste-reteste adequada, com concordância média de 84%. O coeficiente alfa de Cronbach sugeriu consistência interna/confiabilidade entre itens (α > 0,80) para o CREDI em cada uma das seis faixas etárias (0-5 α = 6-11, 12-17, 18-23, 24-29 e 30-35 meses de idade). As análises multivariadas da validade do constructo mostraram que uma proporção significativa da variação nas pontuações do CREDI pode ser explicada pelo sexo da criança e pelas características familiares, mais importante o estímulo cognitivo em casa relatado pelo cuidador (p < 0,0001). Com relação à validade concorrente, as pontuações do CREDI foram significativamente correlacionadas às pontuações gerais do PRIDI na amostra presencial em r = 0,46 (p < 0,001). Os resultados sugerem que o formulário curto CREDI é uma medida válida, confiável e aceitável de desenvolvimento na primeira infância para crianças com menos de três anos no Brasil.
Elisa Rachel Pisani Altafim, Dana Charles McCoy, Alexandra Brentani et al.
Background: Immunisation of children remains an important public health challenge in India despite the implementation of the Universal Immunisation Programme. Understanding how household and child-specific factors affect children's immunisation is essential for improving immunisation coverage. In this paper, the effects of the number of children and birth order on children's immunisation in India have been examined. The number of children and birth order are two related but conceptually different aspects of families. Distinguishing between the two allows us to determine whether lower immunisation among children arises from larger families or from differences in a child's position within the sibling group, the birth order. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of nationally representative data from the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey, conducted in 2015-16, is used for the study. Logistic regression and household fixed-effects models have been employed to examine the impact of the number of children and birth order on children's immunisation. Results: The findings reveal that immunisation increases with an increase in the number of children in a family, and this is consistent across both model specifications. In addition, a strong, negative effect of birth order on immunisation has been observed. Larger families are more likely, whereas a child of a higher birth order is less likely to achieve full immunisation. Conclusions: The study highlights the importance of the number of children and birth order in explaining immunisation outcomes in India. The empirical findings show that the number of children has a positive effect and birth order has a negative effect on full immunisation.
BACKGROUND: Vaccine preventable diseases are still the most common cause of childhood mortality, with an estimated 3 million deaths every year, mainly in Africa and Asia. An estimate of 29% deaths among children aged 1-59 months were due to vaccine preventable diseases. Despite the benefits of childhood immunisation, routine vaccination coverage for all recommended Expanded Programme on Immunization vaccines has remained poor in some African countries, such as Nigeria (31%), Ethiopia (43%), Uganda (55%) and Ghana (57%). The aim of this study is to collate evidence on the factors that influence childhood immunisation uptake in Africa, as well as to provide evidence for future researchers in developing, implementing and evaluating intervention among African populations which will improve childhood immunisation uptake. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of articles on the factors influencing under-five childhood immunisation uptake in Africa. This was achieved by using various keywords and searching multiple databases (Medline, PubMed, CINAHL and Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection) dating back from inception to 2020. RESULTS: Out of 18,708 recorded citations retrieved, 10,396 titles were filtered and 324 titles remained. These 324 abstracts were screened leading to 51 included studies. Statistically significant factors found to influence childhood immunisation uptake were classified into modifiable and non-modifiable factors and were further categorised into different groups based on relevance. The modifiable factors include obstetric factors, maternal knowledge, maternal attitude, self-efficacy and maternal outcome expectation, whereas non-modifiable factors were sociodemographic factors of parent and child, logistic and administration factors. CONCLUSION: Different factors were found to influence under-five childhood immunisation uptake among parents in Africa. Immunisation health education intervention among pregnant women, focusing on the significant findings from this systematic review, would hopefully improve childhood immunisation uptake in African countries with poor coverage rates.
Abubakar Nasiru Galadima, Nor Afiah Mohd Zulkefli, Salmiah Md Said et al.
