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Subject: Enrichment factor ×

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    A community-based pragmatic, controlled trial for preventing and reducing oral diseases among 1-6-year-old children visiting Anganwadi centers, under the Integrated Child Development Scheme, India
    (BMC Public Health, 2019) Ashima Goyal; Ashoo Grover; Krishan Gauba; Arpit Gupta; Nishant Mehta; Sourabh Dutta; R. M. Pandey; Ashish Joshi; J. S. Thakur; Utkal Mohanty; R. S. Dhaliwal
    Background: Early childhood caries (ECC) has reached epidemic proportions affecting millions of children worldwide. Its prevention becomes imperative owing to the significant morbidity and financial implications involved with its treatment. The Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), launched in India to provide mid-day meals, pre-school education and primary healthcare to children, can be utilised to counsel and deliver oral health education to mothers. The purpose of the study is to compare the effect of an oral health care package (OHCP) with usual care on the change in dental disease status among 1 to 3-year-old children at Anganwadi centres (AWC) in periurban areas of Chandigarh and rural areas of Cuttack, Orissa over a follow-up period of three years. Methods: Two geographically distant ICDS blocks would be selected at each of the two study sites and would be randomly allocated to intervention and control group. Closely located AWCs under each of the selected blocks shall constitute the study setting. OHCP would be delivered to the mothers of the 1-6-year-old children enrolled in the AWCs of the experimental group whereas mothers under control group would receive usual care advice available at the AWCs. Discussion: ECC prevention had conventionally focused upon testing effectiveness of programs targeting behaviour change among the caregivers and children, but surprisingly minimal efforts have been made to seek translation of these efforts into reduction of ECC at the community level. The present study has two components; testing effect of altering maternal and child behavioral aspects on ECC incidence through cohort follow up of 1-3-year-old children for three consecutive years and cross-sectional follow up of all available 1-6-year old children at the selected AWCs at regular intervals to look for change in prevalence of ECC at community level. In other regions of the world surveys of ECC prevalence before and after the intensive educational programs have shown a significant reduction in ECC prevalence. A similar decline can be anticipated through this program.
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    Accountability in the health system of Tamil Nadu, India: exploring its multiple meanings
    (Health Res. Policy Syst., 2019) Rakhal Gaitonde; V. R. Muraleedharan; Miguel San Sebastian; Anna-Karin Hurtig
    BackgroundAccountability is increasingly being demanded of public services and is a core aspect of most recent frameworks of health system strengthening. Community-based accountability is an increasingly used strategy, and wasa core aspect of India's flagship National Rural Health Mission (NRHM; 2005-2014). Research on policy implementation has called for policy analysts to go beyond the superficial articulation of a particular policy intervention to study the underlying meaning this has for policy-makers and other actors of the implementation process and to the way in which problems sought to be addressed by the policy have been identified and problematised'.MethodsThis research, focused on state level officials and health NGO leaders, explores the meanings attached to the concept of accountability among a number of key actors during the implementation of the NRHM in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The overall research was guided by an interpretive approach to policy analysis and the problematisation lens. Through in-depth interviews we draw on the interviewees' perspectives on accountability.ResultsThe research identifies three distinct perspectives on accountability among the key actors involved in the implementation of the NRHM. One perspective views accountability as the achievement of pre-set targets, the other as efficiency in achieving these targets, and the final one as a transformative process that equalises power differentials between communities and the public health system. We also present the ways in which these differences in perspectives are associated with different programme designs.ConclusionsThis research underlines the importance of going beyond the statements of policy to exploring the underlying beliefs and perspectives in order to more comprehensively understand the dynamics of policy implementation; it further points to the impacts of these perspectives on the design of initiatives in response to the policy.