ReviewTropical medicine & international health : TM & IH2015
Using multi-country household surveys to understand who provides reproductive and maternal health services in low- and middle-income countries: a critical appraisal of the Demographic and Health Surveys.
Review in Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trends in demographic and health survey publications based on a bibliometric analysis.Global health action · 2026Pooled it
- Meeting need vs. sharing the market: a systematic review of methods to measure the use of private sector family planning and childbirth services in sub-Saharan Africa.BMC health services research · 2018Pooled it
- Linking household and facility data for better coverage measures in reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health care: systematic review.Journal of global health · 2016Pooled it
- Determinants and geographic distribution of unimproved sanitation facilities in sub-Saharan Africa, spatial and multilevel analysis using demographic and health survey (DHS) data.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Dynamics of care and sector use between birth, contraception and sick child services.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Collection of cancer-specific data in population-based surveys in low- and middle-income countries: A review of the demographic and health surveys.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Length-of-stay after a health facility birth and associated factors: analysis of data from three Sub-Saharan African countries.Ghana medical journal · 2022Article
- Tale of 22 cities: utilisation patterns and content of maternal care in large African cities.BMJ global health · 2022Article
- Using DHS and MICS data to complement or replace NGO baseline health data: an exploratory study.F1000Research · 2021Article
- Standard Survey Data: Insights Into Private Sector Utilization.Frontiers in medicine · 2021Article
- The Global Network Maternal Newborn Health Registry: a multi-country, community-based registry of pregnancy outcomes.Reproductive health · 2020Article
- The impact of the obstetrical risk insurance scheme in Mauritania on maternal healthcare utilization: a propensity score matching analysis.Health policy and planning · 2020Article
- Childbirth care in Egypt: a repeat cross-sectional analysis using Demographic and Health Surveys between 1995 and 2014 examining use of care, provider mix and immediate postpartum care content.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2020Article
- Time trends in facility-based and private-sector childbirth care: analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys from 25 sub-Saharan African countries from 2000 to 2016.Journal of global health · 2019Article
- Is childbirth location associated with higher rates of favourable early breastfeeding practices in Sub-Saharan Africa?Journal of global health · 2019Article
- 'Who assisted with the delivery of (NAME)?' Issues in estimating skilled birth attendant coverage through population-based surveys and implications for improving global tracking.BMJ global health · 2019Review
- Article
- Advancing measurement and monitoring of reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition: global and country perspectives.BMJ global health · 2019Article
- Equity in antenatal care quality: an analysis of 91 national household surveys.The Lancet. Global health · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThe Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) are a vital data resource for cross-country comparative analyses. This study is part of a set of analyses assessing the types of providers being used for reproductive and maternal health care across 57 countries. Here, we examine some of the challenges encountered using DHS data for this purpose, present the provider classification we used, and provide recommendations to enable more detailed and accurate cross-country comparisons of healthcare provision.
methodsWe used the most recent DHS surveys between 2000 and 2012; 57 countries had data on family planning and delivery care providers and 47 countries had data on antenatal care. Every possible response option across the 57 countries was listed and categorised. We then developed a classification to group provider response options according to two key dimensions: clinical nature and profit motive.
resultsWe classified the different types of maternal and reproductive healthcare providers, and the individuals providing care. Documented challenges encountered during this process were limitations inherent in household survey data based on respondents' self-report; conflation of response options in the questionnaire or at the data processing stage; category errors of the place vs. professional for delivery; inability to determine whether care received at home is from the public or private sector; a large number of negligible response options; inconsistencies in coding and analysis of data sets; and the use of inconsistent headings.
conclusionsTo improve clarity, we recommend addressing issues such as conflation of response options, data on public vs. private provider, inconsistent coding and obtaining metadata. More systematic and standardised collection of data would aid international comparisons of progress towards improved financial protection, and allow us to better characterise the incentives and commercial nature of different providers.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.