Promoting male participation in maternal healthcare is essential for improved maternal health outcomes. This study explored existing strategies to promote male participation in maternal healthcare and assessed their implementation challenges within healthcare facilities in the Jaman North District in Ghana. A qualitative approach was implemented in April 2020. Interviews were administered to a stratified purposive sample of 18 respondents comprising six midwives and 12 male partners of postnatal mothers. All interviews were audio‐recorded, transcribed, and manually analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed early service, male partner invitation, male partner incentivisation, public sensitization, and male informed education, as strategies to promote male participation in the district. The implementation of these strategies has been constrained by socio‐cultural and health system factors, namely, perception of pregnancy as non‐illness, perceived experiences gained by women during previous births, cultural stereotypes, unconducive environment of healthcare facilities, inappropriate timing of facility attendance and unexpected costs associated with male participation. Promoting male participation, therefore, requires dedicated policy attention to the existing socio‐cultural and health system constraints. The Ghana Health Service and other stakeholders should consider both community‐level and targeted sensitization on the benefits of male participation in maternal healthcare and a general improvement in maternal healthcare infrastructure.

There is limited understanding of the influence of multiple characteristics of food vending on students' preferences for vended food. This study assessed students' preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for various characteristics of food vending service. A Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) was administered to 585 students of the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies, Ghana. The respondents were selected through multistage sampling. Data was collected using a structured experimental survey questionnaire. Six attributes (and attribute levels) were identified from a qualitative study and used to design the DCE: Food taste (natural vs. spicy), environmental sanitation (good vs. poor), vendor's personal hygiene (good vs. poor), customer relations (good vs. poor), vendors' location (far from vs. near to students) and price ((1US$=GH¢4.5) per plate (GH¢3, 6, 9 and 12). Nested logit modelling of the data showed that the highest preference and marginal WTP values were associated with good environmental sanitation, good personal hygiene, natural taste of food, good customer relation, and proximity of vendor, in that order. The study concludes that health consciousness is a major factor that attracts students to vended food. Food vendors should, therefore, improve upon the sanitation of their environments and their personal hygiene to attract and retain customers.

ObjectivesPatients with haematological malignancies (HM) receive more aggressive treatments near the end-of-life (EOL) than patients with solid tumours. Palliative care (PC) needs are less widely acknowledged in patients with multiple myeloma (MM) than in other HM. The main objective of our study was to describe EOL care and PC referral in a population of older patients with MM.MethodsWe retrospectively included deceased inpatients and outpatients with an MM previously diagnosed at the age of 70 and over in two tertiary centres in France. We reported EOL characteristics regarding treatments considered to be aggressive—antimyeloma therapies, hospitalisations, blood product transfusions, intensive care units (ICUs) or emergency admissions—and PC referral.ResultsWe included 119 patients. In their last month of life, 75 (63%) were hospitalised for fever, pain, asthenia, anaemia or bleeding, 49 (41%) were admitted in the emergency department and 12 (10%) in ICU, 76 (64%) still received antimyeloma therapy and 45 (38%) had at least two transfusions. Only 24 (20%) received PC intervention for pain, global care, family support, anxiety, social care or confusion. Median follow-up until death was 20 days.ConclusionsOur study found a high rate of hospitalisations and antimyeloma therapies in the last month of life. The PC referral rate was low, often once specific treatments were stopped. Our results suggest the need for more effective collaboration between PC teams and haematologists in order to respond to the specific needs of these patients and to improve their quality of care at EOL.

No abstract