1,720,998 research outputs found
Appropriation of maternal mHealth interventions by rural-based healthcare clients who do not own mobile phones: the case of Malawi
Full text linkProblem statement: mHealth interventions may reduce maternal mortality in low-resource settings, through the provision of maternal healthcare information in hard-to-reach areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, mHealth interventions are bedevilled by inequalities in mobile phone ownership. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, women are 13% less likely to own a mobile phone than their male counterparts. In Malawi, male mobile phone ownership is at 44.9%, while for females is at 37.7%. As a result, some maternal mHealth projects facilitate access to mobile phones for those who do not own mobile phones through infomediaries. Most studies in maternal mHealth focus on maternal healthcare clients who own mobile phones. Only a few studies have investigated how maternal healthcare clients who do not own mobile phones appropriate mHealth interventions. Purpose of the study: This study aims to explain how and why maternal healthcare clients who do not own mobile phones appropriate maternal mHealth interventions. Research methodology: The study used a qualitative research method and an interpretive paradigm. The study used a case of Chipatala Cha Pa Foni a maternal and child health intervention in Malawi. The intervention sends SMS and voice messages to maternal healthcare clients based on their stage of pregnancy. Maternal Healthcare clients can also call the toll-free hotline for maternal health-related advice. A conceptual framework was used as a sensitising tool for data collection. Data was collected using secondary data from the implementing agency and empirical data through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and observations. The study used purposive sampling to sample maternal healthcare clients and mobile phone owners. Snowballing was used to sample key informants from the implementing agency. Data was analysed using deductive thematic data analysis. Key findings: The study found that maternal healthcare clients who do not own mobile phones appropriate maternal mHealth interventions. These maternal healthcare clients are influenced to appropriate maternal mHealth interventions by different stakeholders of maternal health. These stakeholders form a community of purpose, wherein some members are infomediaries. The roles of infomediaries include agents of behaviour change, enabling access to maternal health information and promoting a culture of sharing. The study also found that maternal healthcare clients use different tactics to negotiate usage of the mobile phone inter alia issue-based tactics and accommodating tactics. Originality/contribution: The study contributes to the theory through the conceptual framework, which can be used to study the appropriation of interventions from the perspective of users who do not own prerequisite technologies. The study also proposed several frameworks, which can be used to study infomediaries, communities of purpose, and negotiations in ICT4D. Practically, the study has outlined implications that can assist mHealth designers and implementers regarding how their interventions can be inclusive to all beneficiaries regardless of their mobile phone ownership status. In addition, policymakers working on maternal and child health, as well as public health can use the findings of this study to inform mHealth policies that encourage mHealth designers and implementers to develop interventions that can be accessible to people who rely on shared technologies
Labour and birth information needs of first time mothers in Malawi and satisfaction with information received
Full text linkGiving labour and birth information to first time mothers is one of the challenges facing the midwives in Malawi. There are many underlying health and soeioeconomic problems facing the people of Malawi particularly mothers in the child bearing age because of inadequate human and material resources in the health sector. This thesis presents findings of a study carried out in Malawi to explore labour and birth information given to first time mothers at hospitals and in the communities. Maternal satisfaction with the information received was determined. In addition labour and birth information needs of first time mothers in Malawi were determined from the mother\u27s perspective. A descriptive-correctional design was used in this study. One hundred and fifty first time mothers who had given birth to a live full term infant within 8 weeks of the postpartum period participated in the study. The findings of the quantitative results were analysed using SPSS for Windows. Responses to open ended questions were analysed using content analysis. The findings indicated that first time mothers believe that they are not given adequate labour and birth information in the hospital settings. The findings also indicated that labour and birth information given in the community is culturally based and mainly comprises cultural beliefs and taboos of childbirth. First time mothers in Malawi also expressed satisfaction with some of the information given during pregnancy, labour and birth but were not satisfied overall with the amount of information they received in preparing them for childbirth. The findings of the study have implications for improving how and what labour and birth information is given to first time mothers in Malawi. Recommendations are presented for nurse/midwifery practice, education, management and research
The development and evaluation of a childbirth education program for Malawian women
Full text linkChildbirth education provided to women is an Integral aspect of the childbirth experience. In Malawi, midwives face a major challenge because one of their major roles is to provide childbirth information to women. However, there are no existing Childbirth Education Programs to facilitate this process. The purpose of this study was, therefore, threefold. First, it explored childbirth Information needs of Malawian mothers from the perspectives of both mothers and midwives, as well as strategies that would be appropriate to disseminate this childbirth information to Malawian women. Second, it developed a Childbirth Educational Program (CEP) to meet the specific needs of Malawian women as previously identified. Third, the CEP was implemented and evaluated for it’s effectiveness in increasing Malawian women’s knowledge of childbirth. The study was conducted in three phases. In Phase One, childbirth information needs of Malawian women were determined using findings from previous studies, focus groups and individual interviews of Malawian midwives. In Phase Two, data obtained from Phase One was used to develop a CEP as well as pretest/posttest questionnaire. In Phase Three, a quasi-experimental study using sequential sampling was conducted to implement and evaluate the CEP. Participants Included pregnant women who attended antenatal clinics at the Ndirande and Limbe Health Centres in Blantyre (Malawi). Following informed consent, 125 women from the Ndirande Health Centre were Invited to participate in the study and recruited to a control group. Another 125 women were also recruited to an intervention group at Limbe Health centre. A pretest was administered to both groups of women to determine their childbirth knowledge prior to implementation of the study. Women In the control group were exposed to routine antenatal education from both hospital and traditional non-hospital sources. Therefore, an increase in childbirth knowledge was anticipated. Additionally, women in the intervention group were exposed to both routine antenatal education as well as a systematic and comprehensive CEP. It was anticipated the degree to which knowledge increased in this group would be higher than in the control group, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the CEP
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
- …
