SynthesisPloS one2017
The effects of cash transfers and vouchers on the use and quality of maternity care services: A systematic review.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 63 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
63 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Equity in prenatal healthcare services globally: an umbrella review.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Pooled it
- Incentives for pregnant mothers during antenatal care for better maternal and neonatal health outcomes in low and middle income countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.F1000Research · 2024Pooled it
- Effects of women's economic empowerment interventions on antenatal care outcomes: a systematic review.BMJ open · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Impact of conditional and unconditional cash transfers on health outcomes and use of health services in humanitarian settings: a mixed-methods systematic review.BMJ global health · 2022Pooled it
- PRISMA 2020 explanation and elaboration: updated guidance and exemplars for reporting systematic reviews.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2021Guideline
- Community-level interventions for improving access to food in low- and middle-income countries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Community-level interventions for improving access to food in low- and middle-income countries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Demand-side financing for maternal and newborn health: what do we know about factors that affect implementation of cash transfers and voucher programmes?BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2017Pooled it
- The Impact of a Mobile Money-Based Intervention on Maternal and Neonatal Health Outcomes in Madagascar: Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Evaluation of an unconditional cash transfer program targeting children's first-1,000-days linear growth in rural Togo: A cluster-randomized controlled trial.PLoS medicine · 2020Trial
- Maternal Cash Transfers Led To Increases In Facility Deliveries And Improved Quality Of Delivery Care In Nigeria.Health affairs (Project Hope) · 2020Trial
- Conditional cash transfers to improve use of health facilities by mothers and newborns in conflict affected countries, a prospective population based intervention study from Afghanistan.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2019Trial
- Predicting zero-dose vaccination status in 27 sub-Saharan African countries: a machine learning approach.BMJ health & care informatics · 2026Article
- Effects of Cash Transfer and Incentive Programs on Service Utilization and Treatment Outcomes Related to Neglected Tropical Diseases and Their Impact on Health and Nutrition in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Protocol for a Systematic Review.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- What compels enrollment in a mobile maternal health wallet? A mixed-methods doer/non-doer analysis in Analamanga, Madagascar.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Intersectoral interventions: integration for impact on preterm birth.Reproductive health · 2025Article
- Design, coverage and utilisation of maternity conditional cash programmes in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Impact of a Mobile Money-Based Conditional Cash Transfer Intervention on Health Care Utilization in Southern Madagascar: Mixed-Methods Study.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2025Article
3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCash transfers and vouchers are forms of 'demand-side financing' that have been widely used to promote maternal and newborn health in low- and middle-income countries during the last 15 years.
methodsThis systematic review consolidates evidence from seven published systematic reviews on the effects of different types of cash transfers and vouchers on the use and quality of maternity care services, and updates the systematic searches to June 2015 using the Joanna Briggs Institute approach for systematic reviewing. The review protocol for this update was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42015020637).
resultsData from 51 studies (15 more than previous reviews) and 22 cash transfer and voucher programmes suggest that approaches tied to service use (either via payment conditionalities or vouchers for selected services) can increase use of antenatal care, use of a skilled attendant at birth and in the case of vouchers, postnatal care too. The strongest evidence of positive effect was for conditional cash transfers and uptake of antenatal care, and for vouchers for maternity care services and birth with a skilled birth attendant. However, effects appear to be shaped by a complex set of social and healthcare system barriers and facilitators. Studies have typically focused on an initial programme period, usually two or three years after initiation, and many lack a counterfactual comparison with supply-side investment. There are few studies to indicate that programmes have led to improvements in quality of maternity care or maternal and newborn health outcomes.
conclusionFuture research should use multiple intervention arms to compare cost-effectiveness with similar investment in public services, and should look beyond short- to medium-term service utilisation by examining programme costs, longer-term effects on service utilisation and health outcomes, and the equity of those effects.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.