David Olds

Bio: David Olds is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Early childhood. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 2 citations.

Building evidence to improve maternal and child health (Comment)

Abstract: Giving children the best possible start in life is crucial to reduce health disparities. One of the UK Government’s efforts to support young children has been to adapt and assess the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP), a programme of prenatal and early childhood home visiting for vulnerable first-time mothers and their children. This article comments on a study published in the Lancet on Building Blocks, a multisite trial of the FNP in England.

Key Features of Sub-Sahara Africa’s Selected Child Health Policy and Program Evidence-base Publications

Abstract: Background: Progressive child health care continuum policy and research advancement constitutes rightful priority in every setting. Nevertheless, given the current reality, countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia are expected to improve performance in this respect. Objective: The given research output aimed at describing the key features of selected child health policy and programmatic research evidence publications from the Sub-Saharan Africa. Method: The study implemented a quantitative cross-sectional descriptive methodological framework using sampled abstracts pool of reference sources which are already published and archived into the Pub Med between September 2013 through September 2015 limit. Coupled with several sub-themes Child Health Policy Evidences in Sub-Saharan Africa and Child Health Research in Sub-Saharan Africa were the two main search strategies. A total of 1,446 abstracts of the published articles were solicited and organized in alphabetical order on thematic area. Subsequently, with consideration a sample size of one-third (33.9%),491 abstracts were enrolled for the focused quantitative descriptive analysis. Result: Majority of the Sub-Saharan countries have two or more published child health related articles entered in Pub Med during the period. Kenya (12.5%; 60), South Africa (11.0%; 53), Uganda (8.7%; 42), Ethiopia (8.0%; 38) and Nigeria (8.0%; 38) were the lead countries. Overall, the Eastern Africa Region was on top with 35.9% share of the articles. From the perspective of design and quality of evidence, quantitative and cross-sectional descriptive, including exploratory were most commonly used accounting for 77.6% and 77.2% respectively. Specifically, intervention trials and mixed method designs were below 10.0% each. Pertaining to the child population and child health conditions, the desired proportional duepriority to the newborn and under-five category, of course, without forgetting all other childhood population and their health conditions, appeared not optimal. Predominance of multiple authorships where nearly 50% revealed between five and ten authors for an article was encouraging. Publication journal outlets are quite abundant even by taking the Ethiopian case scenario. Conclusion & Recommendation: Even if still very modest, efforts made by the majority of the Sub-Saharan African countries and particularly so by Kenya, South Africa and Uganda should encourage other countries of the region to advancing the child health research culture cause with increased enterprise. Engagement in dynamic mapping, analysis, and synthesis of up-to-date child health evidence-base should serve standard academic, research, policy and program continuum of practice in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Intensive nurse visits to teenage mothers do not reduce further pregnancies, report says

Abstract: Intensive home visits from specialist nurses to teenagers expecting their first baby do not reduce the rate of second pregnancies within two years or improve the babies’ health when compared with usual prenatal and community child health services, show the short term outcomes of a UK programme reported in the Lancet .1 Children born to teenage mothers are more likely to have lower birth weight, not to be breast fed, and to have a higher risk of accidents and early death than children born to older mothers. They tend to do worse at school, have more emotional and behavioural problems, and have a higher risk of becoming teenage parents themselves. In 2007 the NHS in England introduced the Family Nurse Partnership, a programme that supplemented standard care with intensive home visits to teenage mothers by specially …