Authors: Zahid A Memon, Gul N Khan, Sajid B Soofi, Imam Y Baig, Zulfiqar A Bhutta
Under-five mortality has fallen globally from 12.6 million deaths in 1990 to 6.6 million deaths in 2012. The share of neonatal mortality among under-five deaths increased from 37% in 1990 to about 44% in 2012, because of a slower decline in the neonatal mortality rate compared to deaths in older children. In Pakistan, over 60% of deaths under 5 years occur during the neonatal period (55 per 1000 live births) and have not changed over the past 6 years. These national averages mask considerable disparities between provinces and districts. Remote districts of the northern mountainous regions and southern areas of the country have the highest perinatal and neonatal mortality rates.
Despite some progress in improving perinatal and neonatal mortality through community-based interventions of maternal and neonatal care packages, relatively few large-scale community-based projects have delivered neonatal interventions within local health systems and through public sector health workers with perinatal and neonatal mortality as a defined outcomes.
Therefore, the authors evaluated the impact of a low-cost package of community-based interventions implemented through government sector lady health workers (LHWs) and community health workers (CHWs) of a NGO namely Aga Khan Health Services on perinatal and neonatal outcomes in a sub-population of the remote mountainous district of Gilgit, Northern Pakistan.
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Resource Topic: CHW Role, Care Teams, Community Health Workers/Volunteers, Community Involvement, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health
Resource Type: Research
Year: 2015
Region: Asia
Country: Pakistan
Publisher May Restrict Access: No