A collection of studies led by maternal health researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health highlights unique research methods to improve measures for tracking maternal health determinants around the world.
The collection, compiled by PLOS, was published Feb. 3 and includes 13 papers describing research studies conducted in Argentina, Ghana, and India under Harvard Chan School’s Improving Maternal Health Measurement project. The project was led by current and former affiliates of the Department of Global Health and Population: Rima Jolivet, former senior research scientist; Jewel Gausman, ScD ’17, former senior research associate; and Ana Langer, professor of the practice of public health, emerita.
“As maternal deaths shift from being largely attributable to direct obstetric to indirect causes, addressing upstream, contextual factors [is] crucial for ending preventable maternal mortality,” Jolivet, Gausman, and Langer wrote in their introduction to the collection. “However, most health indicators at the policy and health system level are not research-validated, and there is no standard research methodology to do so.”
The studies offer insights into the performance of measures that country and global health care decisionmakers routinely use to track, evaluate, and drive improvements in the systemic and structural determinants of maternal health. These determinants include access to safe and legal abortion, availability and competency of the midwifery workforce, availability of emergency obstetric care, person-centered provision of family planning, and universal access to essential maternity care services.
Said Jolivet, “This collection of original validity research can help researchers improve the tools available to measure critical upstream determinants of maternal health and survival.”
Browse the collection in PLOS: Improving Maternal Health Measurement
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Ana Langer
