Full Report - Research for Development - Department for ...

Types of intervention
Interventions were broadly defined as actions concerned with improving the access,
utilisation or effectiveness of maternal and infant health services in areas serving
urban poor populations. These interventions could be concerned either with clinical
or non clinical services. Studies that did not clearly distinguish effects from other
non-targeted health interventions, such as the provision of potable water, were
excluded.
Types of participant
Mothers and infants up to the age of 24 months. Studies had to address specific poor
populations in urban, semi-urban or peri-urban settings. Studies that estimated only
maternal morbidity (other than sever acute maternal morbidity – SAMM) or only
infant morbidity were excluded. While it should be acknowledged that studies set in
rural areas may well be transferable to urban-poor settings, in this review we
excluded these studies that only dealt with this population from our analysis. Studies
that dealt only with non-poor urban populations were also excluded from the
analysis.
The World Bank definition of low income and lower middle income countries was
used, with the additional restriction that countries in Europe were excluded from
the analysis (World Bank, 2011). It should however be acknowledged that there may
be interventions in upper middle income countries, particularly those that have high
levels of income inequality that could be used in low and middle income country
settings.
2.2.2 Identification of potential studies: search strategy
Our review team, including information scientists and information retrieval experts,
developed a search protocol that was subject to external peer review and agreement
of the study funders for approval. Our search includes major databases that cover
literature on this topic; these cover both English and non-English language material,
including specialist health and development databases, as well as those focusing on
specific geographical (Box 2.1).
Box 2.1: Electronic databases searched
African Index Medicus
African Journals On-Line
ASSIA (Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts)
Campbell Collaboration
Cochrane
Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness (University of York)
Office of Health Economics, Health Economic Evaluation Database
NHS Economic Evaluation Database (University of York)
Econlit
EMBASE
Geobase
Global Health
Health evidence.ca
Methods
What are the effects of different models of delivery for improving maternal and infant health
outcomes for poor people in urban areas in low income and lower middle income countries? 15