The Importance of Strengthening Mother and Child Health Services during the First 1000 Days of Life: The Foundation of Optimum Health, Growth and Development

Indrio, Flavia; Dargenio, Vanessa Nadia; Marchese, Flavia; Giardino, Ida; Vural, Mehmet; Carrasco-Sanz, Angel; Pietrobelli, Angelo; Pettoello‐Mantovani, Massimo

doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2022.03.001

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The importance of the first 1000 days of life as a unique window of opportunity for improving maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) is widely recognized [1,2]. Many international and national institutions are calling for and implementing interventions to support this crucial period [3][4][5][6][7][8], when the foundations of optimum child growth and development across the lifespan are defined, thus impacting future health trajectories and outcomes for individuals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Needs and Expectations of Expectant and New Parents for an mHealth Application to Support the First 1000 Days of Life: Steps toward a Co-Design Approach

Brunelli

Bussolaro

Dobrina

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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To improve maternal and child health, it is essential to adhere to health-promoting and preventive measures. However, reliable information as well as effective tools are not easy to identify in this field. Our cross-sectional study investigated the needs and expectations of expectant and new mothers and fathers as potential primary users of a hypothetical application supporting the first 1000 days of life. Between May and August 2022, we recruited expectant and new parents by administering an 83-item 5-point Likert scale questionnaire related to the content, functionalities, and technical features of the hypothetical app. We stratified responses using sociodemographic characteristics and then performed ward hierarchical clustering. The 94 women and 69 men involved in our study generally agreed with the proposed content, but expressed low interest in certain app functionalities or features, including those related to the interaction mechanism and interactivity. Women were generally more demanding than men. Our findings, resulting from the engagement of end-users, may be useful for designers and technology providers to implement mHealth solutions that, in addition to conveying reliable information, are tailored to the needs and preferences of end-users in the first 1000 days of life.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Needs and Expectations of Expectant and New Parents for an mHealth Application to Support the First 1000 Days of Life: Steps toward a Co-Design Approach

Brunelli

Bussolaro

Dobrina

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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“…9 Supporting a good start in life by providing earlylife policy interventions to all young children and families is considered one of the most powerful and cost-effective equalisers, ensuring that even the most vulnerable children reach their full potential. 8 To optimally inform policymakers on the effects of policy interventions in early-life years, reliable evidence obtained with robust evaluations is needed. 10 These evaluations can provide information on access, participation, equality and the quality of provision.…”

Section: Strengths and Limitations Of This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Children’s early experiences and environment have important long-term consequences in terms of health and social outcomes. 8 Early-life years, from conception up to 2 years of age, therefore offer a critical window of opportunity to shape the trajectory of a child’s development and later life. When children miss out on the best potential start in life, cycles of poverty and disadvantage may recur for generations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do studies evaluating early-life policy interventions fully adhere to the critical conditions of difference-in-differences? A systematic review

Klootwijk,

Struijs,

Petrus

et al. 2024

BMJ Open

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ObjectivesTo assess the reporting and methodological quality of early-life policy intervention papers that applied difference-in-differences (DiD) analysis.Study designSystematic review.Data sourcesPapers applying DiD of early-life policy interventions in high-income countries as identified by searching Medline, Embase and Scopus databases up to December, 2022.Study eligibility criteria, participants and interventionsStudies evaluating policy interventions targeting expectant mothers, infants or children up to two years old and conducted in high income countries were included. We focused on seven critical conditions of DiD as proposed in a comprehensive checklist: data requirements, parallel trends, no-anticipation, standard statistical assumptions, common shocks, group composition and spillover.ResultsThe DiD included studies (n=19) evaluating early-life policy interventions in childhood development (n=4), healthcare utilisation and providers (n=4), nutrition programmes (n=3) and economic policies such as prenatal care expansion (n=8). Although none of the included studies met all critical conditions, the most reported and adhered to critical conditions were data requirements (n=18), standard statistical assumptions (n=11) and the parallel trends assumption (n=9). No-anticipation and spillover were explicitly reported and adhered to in two studies and one study, respectively.ConclusionsThis review highlights current deficiencies in the reporting and methodological quality of studies using DiD to evaluate early-life policy interventions. As the validity of study conclusions and consequent implications for policy depend on the extent to which critical conditions are met, this shortcoming is concerning. We recommend that researchers use the described checklist to improve the transparency and validity of their evaluations. The checklist should be further refined by adding order of importance or knock-out criteria and may also help facilitate uniform terminology. This will hopefully encourage reliable DiD evaluations and thus contribute to better policies relating to expectant mothers, infants and children.

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“…The first 1,000 days from the start of a woman's pregnancy until her child's second birthday offer a unique window of opportunity to shape healthier and more prosperous futures. The right nutrition during this 1,000 days window can have an enormous impact on a child's ability to grow, learn, and rise out of poverty [7,8]. Involvement of community groups, frontline health workers and volunteers in promoting healthy behaviours in the community is profoundly a common and effective intervention [9,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementation Research on the Effectiveness of Care Group Model in Improving Knowledge and Practices of MCHN Services by Community Mothers in India

Sharmine¹,

Siva²,

Daniel³

2023

Int J Health Sci Res

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Background & objectives: Knowledge and practices of Maternal and child health (MCH) services is vital for improved health and nutrition among children and mothers. This study has used implementation research on the “Care Group Model” a behaviour change communication approach to assess the knowledge and child health care practices of mothers. Methods: The study was conducted in the districts of Odisha which is in the eastern state of India. This study has used a cluster sampling technique to collect the data of the Care Group intervention of the first 1000 days during pregnancy and thereafter among mothers/caregivers of children up to 2 years. This study has followed a mixed-method approach using both quantitative and qualitative data from study population. Results: Implementation of care group model in the four blocks had a great impact on the knowledge, attitude, and practices of mothers or caretakers of young children on the various aspects of maternal and child health. Mothers in the intervention area were found to be better at managing diarrhoea, i.e., they had better knowledge of giving more fluids, solid food and ORS during diarrhoeal episode. Interpretation & conclusion: This study concludes that the care group is more effective in the intervention areas by improving children’s health and massive behavioural changes that happened in the mother’s pregnancy care. Expanding the intervention of care group models in other areas of RMNCHA could be a policy suggestion. Key words: Care Group Model; Implementation Research; Maternal and Child health; Nutrition; Odisha.

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The Importance of Strengthening Mother and Child Health Services during the First 1000 Days of Life: The Foundation of Optimum Health, Growth and Development

Cited by 10 publications

References 18 publications

Exploring the Needs and Expectations of Expectant and New Parents for an mHealth Application to Support the First 1000 Days of Life: Steps toward a Co-Design Approach

Exploring the Needs and Expectations of Expectant and New Parents for an mHealth Application to Support the First 1000 Days of Life: Steps toward a Co-Design Approach

Do studies evaluating early-life policy interventions fully adhere to the critical conditions of difference-in-differences? A systematic review

Implementation Research on the Effectiveness of Care Group Model in Improving Knowledge and Practices of MCHN Services by Community Mothers in India

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