Publications (2)1.66 Total impact
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Article: Evaluation of a community-based randomized controlled prenatal care trial in rural China.
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ABSTRACT: A community-based randomized control prenatal care trial was performed in a rural county of China during 2000-2003. The purpose of this paper is to describe the trial implementation and the impact of the trial on the utilization of prenatal care and perinatal outcomes. In the study county, 10 townships (from a total of 55) were each paired with a control (20 study townships in total), with the criteria for pairing being the township's socioeconomic development, perinatal health, and maternal care utilization and provision. One of each township pair was randomly allocated to the intervention or control groups. The trial interventions were: 1) training township hospital midwives and instructing them in how to provide systematic maternal care, 2) informing women in the community of the importance of prenatal care, 3) if needed, providing basic medical instruments to the hospitals. A variety of data sources were used to describe the trial implementation (observations, group discussions, field notes, survey to women). The data on pregnancy and perinatal outcomes were from the original hand-written work-records in the village family planning centers of the study townships. Implementation of the intervention was deficient. The factors hindering the trial implementation included poor coordination between midwives and family planning officers, broader policy changes implemented by the provincial government during the trial, the decentralization of county governance, and the lack of government funding for maternal care. There was only little difference in the use of maternal care, in women's opinions related to maternal care or content of prenatal care, and no difference in the perinatal outcomes between the intervention and control townships. A community based randomized controlled trial could not be fully carried out in rural China as planned due to the changing political landscape, the complexity of the socio-economic situation and a lengthy planning stage. The study could not answer if perinatal outcomes could be improved by increased use of prenatal care. NCT 01054235.BMC Health Services Research 01/2011; 11:92. · 1.66 Impact Factor -
Article: Perinatal mortality in rural China: retrospective cohort study.
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ABSTRACT: To explore the use of local civil registration data to assess the perinatal mortality in a typical rural county in a less developed province in China, 1999-2000. Retrospective cohort study. Pregnancies in a cohort of women followed from registration of pregnancy to outcome of infant seven days after birth. Routine family planning records in 20 rural townships in eastern China. 3697 pregnancies registered by the local family planning system during 1999. Abortions, stillbirths, early neonatal mortality, perinatal mortality. Only three cases were lost to follow up. The average age of the women at pregnancy was 25.9 years. Three hundred and twelve pregnancies were aborted and 240 ended in miscarriage (total 552, 15%). The perinatal mortality rate was 69 per 1000 births, the rate of stillbirth was 24 per 1000 births, and the early neonatal mortality was 46 per 1000 live births. The early neonatal mortality was 29 in boys and 69 in girls per 1000 live births. The perinatal mortality rate increased notably with parity and was higher in townships having lower income per capita. The family planning system at the most local level is a useful data source for studying perinatal mortality in rural China. The perinatal mortality rate in the study county was higher than previously reported for both rural and urban areas in China. The results by parity and sex of the infant raise concern over the impact of the one child policy.BMJ (Clinical research ed.). 01/2004; 327(7427):1319.
