BackgroundEvery day, globally approximately a thousand women and girls needlessly die as a result of complications during pregnancy, childbirth or the 6 weeks following delivery. The majority of maternal deaths are avoidable and could be prevented with proven interventions to prevent or manage complications during pregnancy and child birth. The aim of this study was to examine factors associated with underutilization of maternal health services in Sudan.MethodsData was obtained from the Sudan Household Health Survey 2010(SHHS). The SHHS collected data from 5730 women, aged 15–49 years and who were pregnant in the last 2 years preceding the survey. The selection of the respondents was through a multi-stage cluster sampling technique. Interviews were conducted with respondents to collect data about their demographic characteristics, reproductive history, pregnancy and child delivery. Univariate analysis and logistic regression were used to analyze the data.ResultsThe factors associated with receiving antenatal care were, higher educational level (odds ratio (OR) = 3.428, 95 % CI 2.473–4.751 – p value 0.001), higher household wealth (OR 1.656, 95 % CI: 1.484–1.855 – p value 0.001) and low parity (OR =1.214, 95 % CI: 1.035–1.423 – p value 0.017). The factors associated with institutional delivery were higher educational level (OR = 1.929, 95 % CI: 1.380–2.697 – p value 0.001), high household wealth (OR = 2.293, 95 % CI: 1.988–2.644 p value 0.001), urban residence (OR = 1.364, 95 % CI: 1.081–1.721 p value 0.009), low parity (OR = 2.222, 95 % CI: 1/786–2.765 p value 0.001), receiving ANC (OR = 3.342, 95 % CI: 2.306–4.844 p value 0.001) and complications during pregnancy (OR = 1.606, 95 % CI: 1.319–1.957 p value 0.001).ConclusionsThe factors associated with both antenatal care use and institutional delivery are similar and interventions to target these include expanding female education and improving coverage and affordability of health services.

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This study aimed to determine the preference of junior doctors for rural postings in Sudan, and to estimate how much they are willing to trade off from their salaries for nonmonetary incentives. Through this study, the first of its kind in Sudan, it should be possible to recommend policy options to support retention of physicians in rural postings. Methods Study setting Medical graduates undergo supervised training for one year (houseman/ internship) in recognized hospitals in rural or urban settings, in addition to another year of

Objectives:To quantify the reduction in absence due to upper respiratory infections (URIs) among primary schoolgirls attending Riyadh’s schools after delivering a hand hygiene workshop intervention over a period of 5 weeks.Methods:A cluster randomized trial was conducted among girls attending 4 primary schools between January and March 2018. The participants attended a hand hygiene workshop. The schoolgirls’ absences were followed up for 5 weeks. Incidence rate, percentage of absence days, and absence rate were calculated for total and URIs absences.Result:Total number of participating schoolgirls was 496. Upper respiratory infections accounted for 15.3% of absence episodes. Schoolgirls lost 521 days of school and 19.4% of them were URIs-related. Absence rate due to URIs were 12.4 and 23.4 as well as 5.62 and 11.72 per 100 schoolgirls in the control (CG) and experimental (EG) groups, respectively. Percentage of absence days were lower in the experimental group (CG: 0.86% and 1.39% versus EG: 0.39% and 0.72%). Incidence rates of absence due to URIs were 0.54 and 1.02 in CG versus 0.24 and 0.51 in EG per 100 schoolgirls per day.Conclusion:There could be further reduction in school absences if education was accompanied by hand soap dissemination. The study could serve as a pilot for major studies in the future. Sustainability of the intervention can be tested in studies with longer durations.