Advances in biomedical science and technology have resulted in dramatic improvements in the healthcare of pediatric chronic conditions. With enhanced survival, health-related quality of life (HRQOL) issues have become more salient. The objectives of this study were to compare generic HRQOL across ten chronic disease clusters and 33 disease categories/severities from the perspectives of patients and parents. Comparisons were also benchmarked with healthy children data. The analyses were based on over 2,500 pediatric patients from 10 physician-diagnosed disease clusters and 33 disease categories/severities and over 9,500 healthy children utilizing the PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales. Patients were recruited from general pediatric clinics, subspecialty clinics, and hospitals. Pediatric patients with diabetes, gastrointestinal conditions, cardiac conditions, asthma, obesity, end stage renal disease, psychiatric disorders, cancer, rheumatologic conditions, and cerebral palsy self-reported progressively more impaired overall HRQOL than healthy children, respectively, with medium to large effect sizes. Patients with cerebral palsy self-reported the most impaired HRQOL, while patients with diabetes self-reported the best HRQOL. Parent proxy-reports generally paralleled patient self-report, with several notable differences. The results demonstrate differential effects of pediatric chronic conditions on patient HRQOL across diseases clusters, categories, and severities utilizing the PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales from the perspectives of pediatric patients and parents. The data contained within this study represents a larger and more diverse population of pediatric patients with chronic conditions than previously reported in the extant literature. The findings contribute important information on the differential effects of pediatric chronic conditions on generic HRQOL from the perspectives of children and parents utilizing the PedsQL™ 4.0 Generic Core Scales. These findings with the PedsQL™ have clinical implications for the healthcare services provided for children with chronic health conditions. Given the degree of reported impairment based on PedsQL™ scores across different pediatric chronic conditions, the need for more efficacious targeted treatments for those pediatric patients with more severely impaired HRQOL is clearly and urgently indicated.

/pdf/impaired-health-related-quality-of-life-in-children-and-3i075kdihv.pdf

Impaired health-related quality of life in children and adolescents with chronic conditions: a comparative analysis of 10 disease clusters and 33 disease categories/severities utilizing the PedsQL 4.0 Generic Core Scales.

Developing countries account for 99 percent of maternal deaths annually. While increasing service availability and maintaining acceptable quality standards, it is important to assess maternal satisfaction with care in order to make it more responsive and culturally acceptable, ultimately leading to enhanced utilization and improved outcomes. At a time when global efforts to reduce maternal mortality have been stepped up, maternal satisfaction and its determinants also need to be addressed by developing country governments. This review seeks to identify determinants of women’s satisfaction with maternity care in developing countries. The review followed the methodology of systematic reviews. Public health and social science databases were searched. English articles covering antenatal, intrapartum or postpartum care, for either home or institutional deliveries, reporting maternal satisfaction from developing countries (World Bank list) were included, with no year limit. Out of 154 shortlisted abstracts, 54 were included and 100 excluded. Studies were extracted onto structured formats and analyzed using the narrative synthesis approach. Determinants of maternal satisfaction covered all dimensions of care across structure, process and outcome. Structural elements included good physical environment, cleanliness, and availability of adequate human resources, medicines and supplies. Process determinants included interpersonal behavior, privacy, promptness, cognitive care, perceived provider competency and emotional support. Outcome related determinants were health status of the mother and newborn. Access, cost, socio-economic status and reproductive history also influenced perceived maternal satisfaction. Process of care dominated the determinants of maternal satisfaction in developing countries. Interpersonal behavior was the most widely reported determinant, with the largest body of evidence generated around provider behavior in terms of courtesy and non-abuse. Other aspects of interpersonal behavior included therapeutic communication, staff confidence and competence and encouragement to laboring women. Quality improvement efforts in developing countries could focus on strengthening the process of care. Special attention is needed to improve interpersonal behavior, as evidence from the review points to the importance women attach to being treated respectfully, irrespective of socio-cultural or economic context. Further research on maternal satisfaction is required on home deliveries and relative strength of various determinants in influencing maternal satisfaction.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186%2Fs12884-015-0525-0.pdf

Determinants of women’s satisfaction with maternal health care: a review of literature from developing countries

From a patient's perspective.

We use the exogenous policy shock of the extension of provision of school meals to upper primary grades in public schools in Delhi to study the effects of school meal intake on the cognitive effort of students within the classroom. Using individual level data on the performance of students in effort games both before and after the extension of the program, we find that the provision of meals significantly improved the classroom effort of students in grade seven. We conclude that school meals have the potential to increase educational attainment in the classroom. JEL Classification: I21, I25, H52

Evidence from India

Person-centered reproductive health care is recognized as critical to improving reproductive health outcomes. Yet, little research exists on how to operationalize it. We extend the literature in this area by developing and validating a tool to measure person-centered maternity care. We describe the process of developing the tool and present the results of psychometric analyses to assess its validity and reliability in a rural and urban setting in Kenya. We followed standard procedures for scale development. First, we reviewed the literature to define our construct and identify domains, and developed items to measure each domain. Next, we conducted expert reviews to assess content validity; and cognitive interviews with potential respondents to assess clarity, appropriateness, and relevance of the questions. The questions were then refined and administered in surveys; and survey results used to assess construct and criterion validity and reliability. The exploratory factor analysis yielded one dominant factor in both the rural and urban settings. Three factors with eigenvalues greater than one were identified for the rural sample and four factors identified for the urban sample. Thirty of the 38 items administered in the survey were retained based on the factors loadings and correlation between the items. Twenty-five items load very well onto a single factor in both the rural and urban sample, with five items loading well in either the rural or urban sample, but not in both samples. These 30 items also load on three sub-scales that we created to measure dignified and respectful care, communication and autonomy, and supportive care. The Chronbach alpha for the main scale is greater than 0.8 in both samples, and that for the sub-scales are between 0.6 and 0.8. The main scale and sub-scales are correlated with global measures of satisfaction with maternity services, suggesting criterion validity. We present a 30-item scale with three sub-scales to measure person-centered maternity care. This scale has high validity and reliability in a rural and urban setting in Kenya. Validation in additional settings is however needed. This scale will facilitate measurement to improve person-centered maternity care, and subsequently improve reproductive outcomes.

/pdf/development-of-a-tool-to-measure-person-centered-maternity-1m0kragi6e.pdf

Development of a tool to measure person-centered maternity care in developing settings: validation in a rural and urban Kenyan population.

Objective. To examine the feasibility, reliability and validity of a 20-item scale for measuring perceived quality of maternity services provided at commune health centres in rural Vietnam. Design. A survey of 200 women who gave birth in July–August 2000 and 196 pregnant women in 34 communes in Quang Xuong District, Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam. Main outcome measures. Inter-rater reliability, internal consistency and factor structure of the scale were examined. The associations between perceived quality and client characteristics were also investigated. Results. The instrument had relatively good inter-rater reliability and internal consistency. Except for two items: ‘good clinical examination’ and ‘adequacy of health workers for women’s health’, the scale exhibited good agreement between the two raters, with kappa values ranging from 0.54 to 0.84. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the dimensions ‘health care delivery’, ‘health facility’, ‘interpersonal aspects of care’ and ‘access to services’ were 0.72, 0.64, 0.72 and 0.33, respectively. Respondents were positive on items related to the dimensions ‘interpersonal aspects of care’ and ‘access to services’, but negative on the dimensions ‘health care delivery’ and ‘health facility’. The maternity status of clients was found to influence the perceived quality of maternity services. Conclusions. The feasibility, reliability and validity of the instrument were established in the context of rural Vietnam. Its application in evaluating other health care programmes should be an important follow-up action for the Vietnamese government.

Measuring client-perceived quality of maternity services in rural Vietnam.

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Measuring client-perceived quality of maternity services in rural Vietnam.