2 - Schools incorporating the Life Sciences and Medicine
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/2164/330
Browse
7 results
Search Results
Item Do medical students want to learn about global health?(2014-05-16) Göpfert, Anya; Mohamedbhai, Hussein; Mise, Josko; Driessen, Anne; Shakil, Ambreen; Fitzmaurice, Ann; Graham, Wendy; University of Aberdeen.Medical Education; University of Aberdeen.Other Applied Health Sciences; University of Aberdeen.Medicine, Medical Sciences & NutritionItem An appraisal of the maternal mortality decline in Nepal(2011-05-26) Hussein, Julia; Bell, Jacqueline; Dar Iang, Maureen; Mesko, Natasha; Amery, Jenny; Graham, Wendy; University of Aberdeen.Other Applied Health Sciences; University of Aberdeen.Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition; University of Aberdeen.Institute of Applied Health SciencesItem Universal reporting of maternal mortality : an achievable goal?(Elsevier, 2006) Graham, Wendy; Hussein, JuliaAbstract This paper aims to highlight the importance of aspiring to achieve universal reporting of maternal deaths as a part of taking responsibility for these avoidable tragedies. The paper first discusses the reasons for reporting maternal deaths, distinguishing between individual case notification and aggregate statistics. This is followed by a summary of the status of reporting at national and international levels, as well as major barriers and facilitators to this process. A new framework is then proposed — the REPORT framework, designed to highlight six factors essential to universal reporting. Malaysia is used to illustrate the relevance of these factors. Finally, the paper makes a Call to Action by FIGO to promote REPORT and to encourage health professionals to play their part in improving the quality of reporting on all maternal deaths — not just those directly in their care.Item Clinical audit-learning from systematic case reviews assessed against explicit criteria(World Health Organization, 2004) Bullough, Colin; Graham, WendyItem Facility-based maternal deaths review : learning from deaths occurring in health facilities(World Health Organization, 2004) Bullough, Colin; Graham, WendyItem Measuring maternal mortality : an overview of opportunities and options for developing countries(BioMed Central, 2008-04-26) Graham, Wendy; Ahmed, S.; Stanton, Cynthia; Abou-Zahr, C.L.; Campbell, O.M.R.Background:There is currently an unprecedented expressed need and demand for estimates of maternal mortality in developing countries. This has been stimulated in part by the creation of a Millennium Development Goal that will be judged partly on the basis of reductions in maternal mortality by 2015. Methods: Since the launch of the Safe Motherhood Initiative in 1987, new opportunities for data capture have arisen and new methods have been developed, tested and used. This paper provides a pragmatic overview of these methods and the optimal measurement strategies for different developing country contexts. Results: There are significant recent advances in the measurement of maternal mortality, yet also room for further improvement, particularly in assessing the magnitude and direction of biases and their implications for different data uses. Some of the innovations in measurement provide efficient mechanisms for gathering the requisite primary data at a reasonably low cost. No method, however, has zero costs. Investment is needed in measurement strategies for maternal mortality suited to the needs and resources of a country, and which also strengthen the technical capacity to generate and use credible estimates. Conclusion: Ownership of information is necessary for it to be acted upon: what you count is what you do. Difficulties with measurement must not be allowed to discourage efforts to reduce maternal mortality. Countries must be encouraged and enabled to count maternal deaths and act.Item Revealing the burden of maternal mortality : a probabilistic model for determining pregnancy-related causes of death from verbal autopsies(BioMed Central, 2007-02-08) Fottrell, Edward; Byass, Peter; Ouedraogo, Thomas W.; Tamini, Cecile; Gbangou, Adjima; Sombié, Issiaka; Högberg, Ulf; Witten, Karen H.; Bhattacharya, Sohinee; Desta, Teklay; Deganus, Sylvia; Tornui, Janet; Fitzmaurice, Ann E.; Meda, Nicolas; Graham, WendyBackground: Substantial reductions in maternal mortality are called for in Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG-5), thus assuming that maternal mortality is measurable. A key difficulty is attributing causes of death for the many women who die unaided in developing countries. Verbal autopsy (VA) can elicit circumstances of death, but data need to be interpreted reliably and consistently to serve as global indicators. Recent developments in probabilistic modelling of VA interpretation are adapted and assessed here for the specific circumstances of pregnancy-related death. Methods: A preliminary version of the InterVA-M probabilistic VA interpretation model was developed and refined with adult female VA data from several sources, and then assessed against 258 additional VA interviews from Burkina Faso. Likely causes of death produced by the model were compared with causes previously determined by local physicians. Distinction was made between free-text and closed-question data in the VA interviews, to assess the added value of free-text material on the model's output. Results: Following rationalisation between the model and physician interpretations, cause-specific mortality fractions were broadly similar. Case-by-case agreement between the model and any of the reviewing physicians reached approximately 60%, rising to approximately 80% when cases with a discrepancy were reviewed by an additional physician. Cardiovascular disease and malaria showed the largest differences between the methods, and the attribution of infections related to pregnancy also varied. The model estimated 30% of deaths to be pregnancy-related, of which half were due to direct causes. Data derived from free-text made no appreciable difference. Conclusion: InterVA-M represents a potentially valuable new tool for measuring maternal mortality in an efficient, consistent and standardised way. Further development, refinement and validation are planned. It could become a routine tool in research and service settings where levels and changes in pregnancy-related deaths need to be measured, for example in assessing progress towards MDG-5.