Practice of death surveillance and response for maternal, newborn and child health: a framework and application to a South African health district.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To assess the functioning of maternal, perinatal, neonatal and child death surveillance and response (DSR) mechanisms at a health district level.

Design

A framework of elements covering analysis of causes of death, and processes of review and response was developed and applied to the smallest unit of coordination (subdistrict) to evaluate DSR functioning. The evaluation design was a descriptive qualitative case study, based on observations of DSR practices and interviews.

Setting

Rural South African health district (subdistricts and district office).

Participants

A purposive sample of 45 front-line health managers and providers involved with maternal, perinatal, neonatal and child DSR. The DSR mechanisms reviewed included a system of real-time death r

SUBMITTER: Mukinda FK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8103944 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature