Thoai D Ngo

Thoai D Ngo
Columbia University | CU · Department of Population and Family Health

PhD

About

115
Publications
27,932
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
2,612
Citations
Introduction
I am the Chair and Professor of the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. As an epidemiologist and social scientist, my work spans interdisciplinary research on key global health and development issues, including adolescent health and empowerment, sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, gender equality, violence, population dynamics, climate change, and poverty alleviation.
Additional affiliations
December 2008 - June 2009
World Health Organization WHO
Position
  • Research Consultant
September 2008 - December 2012
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Position
  • Researcher
September 2008 - September 2009
Marie Stopes International
Position
  • Research Consultant
Education
September 2008 - September 2013
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Field of study
  • Epidemiology and Demography
September 2006 - May 2007
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Field of study
  • Global Disease Epidemiology & Control
September 2006 - May 2008
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Field of study
  • Health and Human Rights

Publications

Publications (115)
Article
Full-text available
The dual crises of COVID-19 and climate change are impacting the lives of adolescents and young people as they transition to adulthood in an uncertain world, yet they are often excluded from research and political discourse. We surveyed young people about their needs and experiences, critical to engaging them and designing effective programs and po...
Article
Full-text available
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education delivery around the world, with school closures affecting over 1.6 billion students worldwide. In India, schools were closed for over 18 months, affecting 248 million students. This study estimates the effect of the pandemic on adolescent literacy and schooling outcomes in India. We used data from the Natio...
Article
Purpose: Studies have documented diverse adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people's lives-for instance on mental health, education/employment prospects, and intrafamily violence. We sought to generate much-needed evidence regarding whether, and which, young people are experiencing multiple intersecting effects. Methods: Data come...
Article
Full-text available
By 2050, the Global South will contain three-quarters of the world's urban inhabitants, yet no standardized categorizations of urban areas exist. This makes it challenging to compare sub-groups within cities. Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are a critical component of ensuring that populations are healthy and productive, yet SRHR o...
Article
Full-text available
Adolescent motherhood has been linked with poor health outcomes at birth for children, including high neonatal mortality, low birthweight, and small‐for‐gestational‐age rates. However, longer‐term growth outcomes in the children of adolescent mothers in low‐resource settings remain inadequately studied. We used longitudinal data from the India Huma...
Article
Full-text available
Objectives We describe the perceptions and experiences of anti-Asian racism and violence and depression severity prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic among a sample of Asian American (AA) adolescents and young adults. Methods We used data from the Young Asian American Health Survey (YAAHS), an online-recruited sample of AA adolescents (ages 1...
Article
Full-text available
Background Survey data that categorizes gender identity in binary terms and conflates sex and gender limits knowledge around the experience of gender minority populations, whose gender identity or expression does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth. In this review, we outline the existing survey research on the experience of a gender...
Article
Full-text available
Academic researchers, government agencies, industry groups, and individuals have produced forecasts at an unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. To leverage these forecasts, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with an academic research lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to create the U...
Article
Purpose Previous studies have examined the relationship between age at marriage and health outcomes, but few have explored how marriage drivers are associated with health outcomes. In this study, we examine the relationship between two marriage drivers, premarital pregnancy and agency, and several health outcomes (use of maternal health care servic...
Article
Purpose Despite many programs aiming to delay girls' marriage and pregnancy over the last 2 decades, there is no consensus yet concerning the effectiveness of different approaches and the contexts in which they are implemented. We focus on different social contexts within Bangladesh and Zambia and investigate how literacy, poverty, and community ch...
Article
Purpose This comparative study explores the connections between potential drivers of child marriage among girls at the individual, household, and community levels. It provides insight into the multilevel influences on child marriage with the goal of informing policies and programs aimed at eliminating the practice. Methods We conducted a secondary...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose The child marriage field lacks a simplified framework that connects an understanding of the drivers of child marriage for girls to decisions about the design of interventions to delay marriage within different contexts and support married girls. Methods We reviewed existing child marriage frameworks and conducted consultations with experts...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose: Adolescent mental health has been under-researched, particularly in Africa. COVID-19-related household economic stress and school closures will likely have adverse effects. We investigate the relationship among adolescent mental health, adult income loss, and household dynamics during the pandemic in Kenya. Methods: A cross-sectional mo...
Article
Full-text available
Background Natural disasters and epidemics can strain already‐fragile health systems, diverting resources away from essential sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, threatening supply chains, and adversely impacting access to health facilities. Objective To describe how natural disasters and epidemics affect multiple dimensions of SRH serv...
Article
Full-text available
Objectives: COVID-19 may spread rapidly in densely populated urban informal settlements. Kenya swiftly implemented mitigation policies; we assess the economic, social and health-related harm disproportionately impacting women. Design: A prospective longitudinal cohort study with repeated mobile phone surveys in April, May and June 2020. Partici...
Article
Full-text available
Nairobi’s urban slums are ill equipped to prevent spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) due to high population density, multigenerational families in poorly ventilated informal housing, and poor sanitation. Physical distancing policies, curfews, and a citywide lockdown were implemented in March and April 2020 resulting in sharp decreas...
Article
Full-text available
On March 24, 2020 India implemented a national lockdown to prevent spread of the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) among its 1.3 billion people. As the pandemic may disproportionately impact women and girls, this study examines gender differences in knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms and preventive behaviors, as well as the adverse effects of the lo...
Article
Full-text available
Background Increased access to home-based medical abortion may offer women a convenient, safe and effective abortion method, reduce burdens on healthcare systems and support social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Home-based medical abortion is defined as any abortion where mifepristone, misoprostol or both medications are taken at home. M...
Technical Report
Full-text available
COVID-19 has disrupted lives, networks, and institutions across social, economic, and health dimensions around the globe. We examine how the pandemic has affected adolescent girls and young women in particular, and explore how group-based programs for girls in low-and middle-income countries have been affected by and are responding to the pandemic....
Article
Full-text available
Background : Despite the presence of legal abortion services in Ghana, unsafe abortion remains common, particularly among young women. Little is understood about what young people know about safe and legal abortion, and if and how they are utilizing it. Methods : To characterize abortion use and address gaps in safe access, from September-December...
Technical Report
Full-text available
To control the spread of COVID-19 in India and to aid the efforts of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), the Population Council and other non-governmental organizations are conducting research to assess residents’ ability to follow sanitation and social distancing precautions under a countrywide lockdown. The Population Council COVID...
Article
Background: The advent of medical abortion has improved access to safe abortion procedures. Medical abortion procedures involve either administering mifepristone followed by misoprostol or a misoprostol-only regimen. The drugs are commonly administered in the presence of clinicians, which is known as provider-administered medical abortion. In self...
Article
Full-text available
The Adolescent Data Hub (ADH) is the first and largest data catalog specifically developed to focus on open access data on adolescents in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). Developed by the Population Council's Girl Innovation, Research, and Learning (GIRL) Center, and launched in August 2018, the ADH has grown to include more than 750 data...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose: Inequitable gender norms are thought to harm lifelong health and well-being. We explore the process of gender attitude change and the role of schooling in shifting or reinforcing gender norms among adolescent girls in Zambia. Methods: We used longitudinal data collected from unmarried, vulnerable girls (aged 10-19 years) as part of the...
Article
Full-text available
During a mass media campaign accompanying the launch of the Maximum Diva Woman’s Condom (WC) in Lusaka, Zambia, a cluster-randomized evaluation was implemented to measure the added impact of a peer-led interpersonal communication (IPC) intervention on the awareness and uptake of the new female condom (FC). The WC and mass media campaign were introd...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Expanding contraceptive method choices for sexually active youth is critical to prevent STIs/HIV and unintended pregnancies. However, preferences and decision making around contraception among young adults are not well understood. A new female condom (FC), the Woman's Condom (WC), features an improved design and is marketed as a premiu...
Article
Context: In Bangladesh, prior to the availability of the approved combination regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol for menstrual regulation (MR), drug seller provision of misoprostol-only regimens for MR without a prescription was widespread but service quality was poor. Examining provider practices relating to misoprostol-only provision in Ban...
Article
Full-text available
Objective To understand how knowledge and perceptions of condoms and partner communication influence use of condoms in a high HIV prevalence setting and gender‐specific differences. Methods A cross‐sectional study was conducted in Zambia from 2015 to 2016. The survey included questions on demographics, sexual behavior, contraceptive perceptions, a...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Mobile phones for health (mHealth) hold promise for delivering behavioral interventions. We evaluated the effect of automated interactive voice messages promoting contraceptive use with a focus on long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) among women in Bangladesh who had undergone menstrual regulation (MR), a procedure to "regulat...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Despite the presence of legal abortion services in Ghana, unsafe abortion remains common, particularly among young women. Little is understood about what young people know about safe and legal abortion, and if and how they are utilizing it. Methods: To characterize abortion use and address gaps in safe access, from September-December 20...
Article
Despite global commitments to achieving gender equality and improving health and wellbeing for all, quantitative data and methods to precisely estimate the effect of gender norms on health inequities are underdeveloped. Nonetheless, existing global, national, and subnational data provide some key opportunities for testing associations between gende...
Article
Full-text available
The objective of this study was to determine factors associated with modern contraceptive use and unintended pregnancy among young women and men in Accra, Ghana. From September-December 2013, we conducted a cross-sectional survey with 250 women and 100 men aged 18–24. We explored determinants of modern contraceptive use among males and females and...
Preprint
Full-text available
Young people in Ghana, like young people globally, need access to information and services to have safe, healthy sexual and reproductive lives. Young people in Ghana, though, face a number of challenges accessing the sexual and reproductive health information and services they need, as evidenced by high levels of unmet need for family planning, ear...
Article
Full-text available
Background: As part of its Family Planning 2020 commitment, the Nigerian government is aiming for a contraceptive prevalence rate of 36% by 2018, and in 2014, approved a policy to allow community health extension workers (CHEWs), in addition to doctors, nurses, and midwives, to provide contraceptive subdermal implants. There is a lack of rigorous...
Article
Full-text available
Background Adoption of modern contraceptive methods after menstrual regulation (MR) is thought to reduce subsequent unwanted pregnancy and abortion. Long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) are highly effective at reducing unintended pregnancy, but uptake in Bangladesh is low. Providing information on the most effective methods of contraceptio...
Article
Full-text available
Objectives In many sub-Saharan African countries, the use of long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) is low while unmet need for family planning (FP) remains high. We evaluated the effectiveness of a LARC access expansion initiative in reaching young, less educated, poor, and rural women. Methods Starting in 2008, Marie Stopes International (...
Article
Full-text available
Background Making misoprostol widely available for management of postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) and post abortion care (PAC) is essential for reducing maternal mortality. Private pharmacies (thereafter called “pharmacies”) are integral in supplying medications to the general public in Senegal. In the case of misoprostol, pharmacies are also the main...
Article
Full-text available
Background Zambia experiences high unmet need for family planning and high rates of HIV, particularly among youth. While male condoms are widely available and 95% of adults have heard of them, self-reported use in the past 12 months is low among young adults (45%). This study describes factors associated with non-use of male condoms among urban you...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Globally, 220 million women experience an unmet need for family planning. A newly designed female condom, the Woman's Condom (WC), has been developed featuring an improved design. It is the first dual-protection, female-initiated contraceptive that is a premium, higher price point product. However, market availability alone will not in...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: To assess pharmacy workers’ knowledge and provision of abortion information and methods in Kenya. Methods: In 2013 we interviewed 235 pharmacy workers in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu about the medical abortion services they provide. We also used mystery clients, who made 401 visits to pharmacies to collect first-hand information on abor...
Article
Objectives: To investigate whether starting progestin-only contraception immediately after mifepristone reduced the efficacy of early medical abortion with a mifepristone-misoprostol regimen. Methods: A review of patient records from October 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013 from four Marie Stopes Mexico clinics in Mexico City was conducted. Patients we...
Article
Full-text available
The objective of this paper is to outline the formative research process used to develop the MOTIF mobile phone-based (mHealth) intervention to support post-abortion family planning in Cambodia. The formative research process involved literature reviews, interviews and focus group discussions with clients, and consultation with clinicians and org...
Article
Full-text available
Objective To assess the effect of a mobile phone-based intervention (mHealth) on post-abortion contraception use by women in Cambodia. Methods The Mobile Technology for Improved Family Planning (MOTIF) study involved women who sought safe abortion services at four Marie Stopes International clinics in Cambodia. We randomly allocated 249 women to a...
Technical Report
Full-text available
Pharmacies are key service delivery points for many women in Senegal. Currently, the majority of pharmacy workers do not have the knowledge to safely provide misoprostol to clients or health providers. Pharmacy workers’ knowledge of misoprostol needs to be strengthened. Further, the supply chain in Senegal needs to be strengthened to ensure access...
Article
Background: The World Health Organization recommends that abortion can be provided at the lowest level of the healthcare system. Training mid-level providers, such as midwives, nurses and other non-physician providers, to conduct first trimester aspiration abortions and manage medical abortions has been proposed as a way to increase women's access...
Article
Contraception provides significant benefits for women's and children's health, yet an estimated 225 million women had an unmet need for modern contraceptive methods in 2014. Interventions delivered by mobile phone have been demonstrated to be effective in other health areas, but their effects on use of contraception have not been established. To as...
Article
Full-text available
To evaluate provision of vouchers for family planning and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. A review was conducted to assess the effects of 24 voucher programs in Marie Stopes International programs across 11 countries in Asia and Africa between 2005 and the present. The outcome measures were uptake of services; service use among speci...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: To explore the knowledge of abortion medications and abortion service provision practices among pharmacy workers in a restrictive country in Southeast Asia. Methods: Between June and July 2012, 170 pharmacy workers operating in the capital city were interviewed about their misoprostol and abortion knowledge and provision practices. To in...
Article
This update outlines changes to the MObile Technology for Improved Family Planning study statistical analysis plan and plans for long-term follow-up. These changes result from obtaining additional funding and the decision to restrict the primary analysis to participants with available follow-up data. The changes were agreed prior to finalising the...
Article
Full-text available
Objective To explore the perspectives of abortion service users regarding termination methods and abortion service delivery in Vietnam. Materials and methods Structured exit interviews were conducted between August and November 2011 with women who underwent termination of pregnancy at 62 public health facilities in Hanoi, Khanh Hoa, and Ho Chi Min...