Feasibility of a birth-cohort in Pakistan: evidence for better lives study.
Authors
Anwer, Yasmeen
Abbasi, Fahad
Dar, Ariba
Hafeez, Abdullah
Valdebenito, Sara
Hafeez, Assad
Publication Date
2022-02-07Journal Title
Pilot Feasibility Stud
ISSN
2055-5784
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Volume
8
Issue
1
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Anwer, Y., Abbasi, F., Dar, A., Hafeez, A., Valdebenito, S., Eisner, M., Sikander, S., & et al. (2022). Feasibility of a birth-cohort in Pakistan: evidence for better lives study.. Pilot Feasibility Stud, 8 (1) https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-022-00980-x
Description
Funder: fondation botnar; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100011318
Funder: jacobs foundation; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003986
Funder: ubs optimus foundation; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100008391
Funder: consuelo zobel alger foundation
Funder: british academy
Funder: centre for research in the arts, social sciences and humanities, university of cambridge; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000587
Funder: economic and social research council; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000269
Funder: queensland university of technology; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001793
Funder: university of edinburgh; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000848
Funder: scottish funding councilsfc oda global challenges internal fund
Funder: university of cambridge gcrf fund
Funder: wolfson professor of criminology discretionary fund
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Evidence for Better Lives Study Foundational Research (EBLS-FR) is a preliminary endeavor to establish the feasibility of a global birth cohort, and within this feasibility study, piloting the research instrument, with participants from eight lower middle-income countries across the globe. It aims to investigate mediators and moderators of child development and wellbeing; it envisages informing policy and practice change to promote child health and wellbeing globally. Pakistan is one of the resource poor lower middle-income country (LMIC) taking part in this global birth cohort; we report the feasibility of establishing such a birth cohort in Pakistan. METHOD: From March 2019 to July 2019, 153 third trimester pregnant women were identified, using community health worker registers, and approached for baseline demographics and a number of maternal wellbeing, mental health, support-related information, and stress-related biomarkers from bio-samples in a peri-urban area of Islamabad Capital Territory. One hundred fifty of these women gave consent and participated in the study. From October 2019 to December 2019, we re-contacted and were able to follow 121 of these women in the 8-24 weeks postnatal period. All interviews were done after obtaining informed consent and data were collected electronically. RESULTS: One hundred fifty (98.0%) third trimester pregnant women consented and were successfully interviewed, 111 (74.0%) provided bio-samples and 121 (80.6%) were followed up postnatally. Their mean age and years of schooling was 27.29 (SD = 5.18) and 7.77 (SD = 4.79) respectively. A majority (82.3%) of the participants were housewives. Nearly a tenth were first time mothers. Ninety-two (61.3%) of the women reported current pregnancy to have been unplanned. Overall wellbeing and mental health were reported to be poor (WHO-5 mean scores 49.41 (SD = 32.20) and PHQ-9 mean scores 8.23 (SD = 7.0)). Thirty-eight (21.8%) of the women reported four or more adverse childhood experiences; 46 (31.3%) reported intimate partner violence during their current pregnancy. During the postnatal follow up visits, 72 (58.0%) of the women reported breastfeeding their infants. CONCLUSION: The foundational research demonstrated that Pakistan site could identify, approach, interview, and follow up women and children postnatally, with a high response rates for both the follow up visits and bio-samples. Therefore, a future larger-scale pregnancy birth cohort study in Pakistan is feasible.
Keywords
Research, Feasibility, Birth Cohort Study, Pakistan, Maternal and child wellbeing, Maternal Mental Health Evidence for Better Lives Study (EBLS), Foundational research, EBLS-FR
Identifiers
s40814-022-00980-x, 980
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-022-00980-x
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/333714
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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