Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2006. / ISBN ej i pappersutskrift. Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--RAND Graduate School, 1994. / "RGSD-112." "Dissertation." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S. in Engin.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1959. / Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1971. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Minnesota, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--RAND Graduate School, 1994. / "RGSD-112." "Dissertation." Includes bibliographical references.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Family Medicine Department of Family Medicine University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017. / Background Research has shown that women who do not obtain adequate prenatal care significantly reduce their chances of a favourable pregnancy outcome. Despite antenatal care services being provided free of charge in South Africa, only 53.9% of women attend antenatal care before the gestational age of 20 weeks or less as recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and National Department of Health (NDOH).The interventions aimed at reducing unfavourable pregnancy outcomes are most effective during prenatal care, it is crucial to identify factors that prevent pregnant mothers from presenting early. It is believed that the findings of this study will give us an insight into the rate of early ANC attendance and will also be useful to policymakers and facility managers, especially at the Primary Health Care (PHC) level, in optimising patient care and improving healthcare services. Aims and objectives Therefore, the objectives of this study were: 1 To establish the gestational age at which pregnant women present to first antenatal visit in Maquassi Hills sub district. 2 To describe participants’ socio-demographic profile, health status and obstetrical characteristics 3 To explore knowledge and attitudes that affect timing of first presentation. 4 To determine any association between first ANC presentation and socio-demographic, obstetric factors, knowledge and attitudes towards ANC. 5 To determine predictors for first antenatal attendance. Method This was a cross-sectional study conducted in four publicly funded primary health facilities in the Maquassi Hills sub district, between August and October 2015. A total of 127 participants were directly interviewed using a structured questionnaire to obtain information about their socio-economic characteristics, ANC and services rendered. Most of the information required for the study was obtained from the Maternity booklet. This included demographic data, obstetric history, medical history, and gestational age. Data analysis was done using Microsoft Excel 2014. A chi-square test was used to determine associations between time of the first presentation and each variable; and a multiple variable regression was used to determine predictors of early attendance. Results Most participants interviewed were: Tswana speaking (72.4%), with a mean age of 26.5 years (SD = 5.9), had a high school education (84.6%) and were mostly single (70.6%). This study showed that 68.9% of the respondents presented to their first antenatal booking within the recommended time of less than 20 weeks. The average period of presentation was 16.3 weeks (SD = 6.0). No statistically significant association was found between socio- demographic, obstetrical characteristics and the timing of the first antenatal visit. All the participants knew that the right time to book an appointment was before 20 weeks as the best perceived time for initiation of ANC. However, there was a statistically significant difference in the best perceived time between those who booked early (2 months [1.99 months (SD =1.145)]) compared with those who booked later (3 months [2.83months (SD = 1.595)]) (p = 0.006). The multivariate analysis showed that participants who perceived three months as the best time for booking were 1.5 times more likely to book later (OR= 1.589, 95% CI 1.227-2.059) compared with those who perceived that the best time was at two months. The most frequent reason given for booking early was to confirm pregnancy (64.0%) and (31.1%) initiated ANC because they were ill. Long waiting times and staff attitude were reported by participants (91.3%) and (5%) respectively as barriers to early ANC visit. Conclusion The findings of this study show that most participants booked antenatal care timely and all participants knew the right time to initiate ANC. However, there is incongruity between knowledge and practice for the 30% who presented late. This could be attributed to the long waiting time and staff attitude mentioned by some of the participants. There is a need therefore to address the demotivating factors such as long waiting time, and staff attitude in order to promote early ANC booking/attendance. / LG2018

A research report submitted to Faculty of Health Sciences in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Epidemiology in the field of Implementation Science, School of Public Health University of The Witwatersrand. Johannesburg June 2018. / Background Intermittent Preventive Therapy using sulfadoxine pyrimethamine (IPTp-SP) is a malaria control strategy to reduce cases of malaria in malaria endemic countries. However, the administration of the recommended three doses of IPTp throughout the stages of pregnancy still remains low in Nigeria even though, Nigeria is a malaria endemic country. Quality improvement approach has been demonstrated to improve practice among healthcare providers. This study therefore used a quality improvement approach to train and coach healthcare providers in order to improve the administration of the recommended doses of IPTp to pregnant women receiving antenatal care (ANC) services. Methods A quasi-experimental study design was carried out to evaluate the effect of quality improvement approach consisting of training and coaching of healthcare providers to improve the administration of IPTp during ANC service. Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) Samaru was purposively selected and twelve healthcare providers participated in the study. ANC daily register was reviewed pre-intervention, intervention and post-intervention period of the study. Data were analysed using line graphs and run charts. Results A total of 36 ANC visit weeks were observed between 21st November 2016 and 27th July 2017. The mean level for IPTp1 administration pre-intervention was 105.85% (SD: 29.28) and 75.20% (SD: 16.89) for IPTp2+. The levels of IPTp1 administration were relatively stable from Week 1 to Week 10 although, there was overestimation of IPTp1 as 8 of the 16 Weeks in the pre-intervention period i.e. Weeks 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 15 and 16 all had more than 100% of eligible women administered IPTp1. The patterns of IPTp2+ administrations shows the levels of IPTp2+ administration were erratic. There was evidence indicating the process of IPTp1 was relatively stable post-intervention as the data crosses the median line only six times i.e. 7 runs. This indicates that the process of IPTp1 was within normal variation over the post-intervention period. There was an upward shift showing immediate improvement of the administration of IPTp2+ post-intervention although, there was a non-random variation in the administration of IPTp2+. The iv improvements of IPTp were not sustainable due to stock-outs. The quality of the ANC daily register was poor. Conclusion The integrated training and coaching intervention approach improved the administration of the recommended three doses of IPTp within the context of a PHC. These findings should be interpreted with caution as the impact of the intervention may not have reached its full impact due to the short post-intervention assessment. Stock-outs remains a huge barrier to the administration of IPTp under DOT during ANC services. The data quality of the ANC daily register improved post-intervention however, there were still slight errors thus, indicating that healthcare providers need constant coaching. It is important to integrate training and coaching of healthcare providers in order to have desired and sustained outcomes. Keywords: Malaria in pregnancy, IPTp, IPTp-SP, SP, ANC, Pregnant women, Healthcare providers, administration, QI, integrated training and coaching. / LG2018

Only a small amount of research on yoga during pregnancy has been done. Yoga is a cost effective tool that expectant mothers can utilize to improve their unborn child's health. There is strong evidence that yoga is useful in having healthier babies. The absence of research on yoga during pregnancy is the impetus for the present study. The independent variable in. the proposed study is yoga participation (yes or no). It was hypothesized that women who participated in Prenatal Yoga would deliver babies with higher APGAR scores. Participants consisted of 18 mothers. The findings did not support the hypothesis, the difference in APGAR scores between the two conditions was not significant, F(l, 16) = 0.312,p = .584.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.