ReviewHealth policy and planning2019
A critical interpretive synthesis of informal payments in maternal health care.
Review in Health policy and planning, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 2 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
26 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- The development of proxy indicators to measure workforce well-being in emergency obstetric and neonatal care settings.Journal of global health · 2025Pooled it
- A critical interpretive synthesis of migrants' experiences of the Australian health system.International journal for equity in health · 2023Pooled it
- Understanding informal payments in the health sector in Malawi: results of a multidistrict household survey.Health policy and planning · 2026Article
- Paying Attention - and Respect - to the Agency of Conflict-Affected Health Workers Comment on "Human Resources for Health in Conflict Affected Settings: A Scoping Review of Primary Peer Reviewed Publications 2016-2022".International journal of health policy and management · 2026Article
- Salary delays among public sector primary care workers: evidence from facility surveys across 16 low- and middle-income countries.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Born Too Soon: Progress and priorities for respectful and rights-based preterm birth care.Reproductive health · 2025Review
- In search of respect and continuity of care: Hungarian women's experiences with midwifery-led, community birth.Birth (Berkeley, Calif.) · 2025Article
- The nature, drivers and equity consequences of informal payments for maternal and child health care in primary health centres in Enugu, Nigeria.Health policy and planning · 2023Article
- A narrative review of challenges related to healthcare worker rights, roles and responsibilities in the provision of sexual and reproductive services in health facilities.BMJ global health · 2023Review
- Unnecessary hospitalisations and polypharmacy practices in Romania: A health system evaluation for strengthening primary health care.Journal of global health · 2023Article
- Does bribery increase maternal mortality? Evidence from 135 Sub-Saharan African regions.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- A critical interpretive synthesis of power and mistreatment of women in maternity care.PLOS global public health · 2023Review
- Informal payments for modern family planning methods at public facilities in Tanzania: room for improvement.Human resources for health · 2022Article
- Corruption in the health sector: A problem in need of a systems-thinking approach.Frontiers in public health · 2022Review
- The Companion Pandemic to COVID-19: The Use of Informal Practices to Access Public Healthcare Services in the European Union.International journal of public health · 2022Article
- Informal payments for family planning: prevalence and perspectives of women, providers, and health sector key informants in western Kenya.Sexual and reproductive health matters · 2021Article
- Informal payments in public hospitals in Malawi: the case of Kamuzu Central Hospital.Global health research and policy · 2021Article
- Supply-side factors influencing informal payment for healthcare services in Tanzania.Health policy and planning · 2021Article
- A Narrative Synthesis Review of Out-of-Pocket Payments for Health Services Under Insurance Regimes: A Policy Implementation Gap Hindering Universal Health Coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa.International journal of health policy and management · 2021Review
- Respectful care an added extra: a grounded theory study exploring intrapartum experiences in Zambia and Tanzania.BMJ global health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Informal payments for healthcare are widely acknowledged as undercutting health care access, but empirical research is somewhat limited. This article is a critical interpretive synthesis that summarizes the evidence base on the drivers and impact of informal payments in maternal health care and critically interrogates the paradigms that are used to describe informal payments. Studies and conceptual articles identified both proximate and systems drivers of informal payments. These include norms of gift giving, health workforce scarcity, inadequate health systems financing, the extent of formal user fees, structural adjustment and the marketization of health care, and patient willingness to pay for better care. Similarly, there are proximal and distal impacts, including on household finances, patient satisfaction and provider morale. Informal payments have been studied and addressed from a variety of different perspectives, including anti-corruption, ethnographic and other in-depth qualitative approaches and econometric modelling. Summarizing and discussing the advantages and disadvantages of these and other paradigms illustrates the value of an inter-disciplinary approach. The same tacit, hidden attributes that make informal payments hard to measure also make them hard to discuss and address. A multidisciplinary health systems approach that leverages and integrates positivist, interpretivist and constructivist tools of social science research can lead to better insight. With this, we can challenge 'master narratives' and meet universalistic, equity-oriented global health objectives.
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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.