Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality burdens globally. Improving maternal outcomes requires a better understanding of how women experience care across pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period. This study explored women’s maternal healthcare experiences across the perinatal continuum in Nigeria, with a focus on how challenges emerge and interact over time.

Longitudinal qualitative study using patient journey mapping.

Public primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities in Abuja, Nigeria.

12 pregnant women were purposively sampled. Each woman participated in two rounds of in-depth interviews: once in late pregnancy and again 2–6 weeks postpartum. All participants completed both interview rounds.

Data were collected through 24 semistructured in-depth interviews conducted longitudinally to capture changes in women’s experiences before and after childbirth. Interview guides were informed by existing maternal health frameworks. Transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and organised across five stages of the maternal healthcare journey: Awareness, Consideration, Access, Treatment and Recovery.

This study introduces a five-stage framework: Awareness, Consideration, Access, Treatment and Recovery, to comprehensively explore maternal healthcare experiences. The findings reveal systemic inefficiencies at every stage of the pregnancy journey, from limited awareness of pregnancy test kits to unreliable booking systems and inadequate postpartum mental health support. This study highlights how early-stage barriers cascade into later phases, unlike traditional research that focuses only on clinical interactions. This study emphasises the importance of maternal care accessibility and recovery support, moving beyond a treatment-centric lens. 

This study presents a transformative framework for understanding maternal healthcare as a continuum of interconnected experiences. The research offers actionable insights to enhance maternal health outcomes through stage-specific strategies. The globally adaptable framework provides policymakers and healthcare practitioners with a roadmap to improve maternal healthcare systems in Nigeria and beyond. This holistic approach lays the foundation for reducing maternal mortality while ensuring equitable care for all.

This project, in adult surgical patients, will evaluate whether the creation of a customised checklist, driven by a clinical decision support tool, is able to improve anaesthesia providers’ adherence to consensus guidelines and standardised practice recommendations for the prevention of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV).

The intervention will be evaluated using a sequential, repeated crossover design at the institutional level, with designated washout, control and intervention periods. The surgical case will serve as the unit of analysis. The primary outcome is adherence to appropriate PONV prophylaxis administration guidelines. Secondary outcomes include the incidence of PONV and length of stay in the postanaesthesia care unit (PACU).

This protocol and statistical analysis plan provide an outline of the study design, primary and secondary end points and analytic approach. The Advancing Strategies to Optimise the PerIopeRativE Management of PostOperative Nausea and Vomiting trial has received approval from the Vanderbilt University Institutional Review Board (IRB: 250773). The results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at national conferences. Findings from this trial will inform best practices for timely antiemetic prophylaxis, with the goal of reducing PONV incidence and shortening PACU stay.

NCT07152249.

Group A Streptococcus (Strep A) causes a wide spectrum of diseases, ranging from pharyngitis and impetigo to severe invasive infections and immune-mediated conditions such as acute rheumatic fever, rheumatic heart disease and acute post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis. Contemporary data on the global burden of Strep A diseases are lacking. The proposed study aims to use administrative data from numerous jurisdictions to estimate age-specific incidence or prevalence of Strep A diseases, with an emphasis on severe clinical endpoints. Depending on the availability of data, a secondary objective will be to estimate the economic burden of Strep A diseases.

This population-based descriptive study will use routine health data obtained from different low-income and middle-income and high-income countries through international research collaborations to estimate the country-level and global burden of Strep A diseases. Data will be primarily obtained and collated from hospital or national health laboratory databases for individuals across all age groups, along with emergency department, primary care and microbiological datasets where available. Strep A disease endpoints will be identified using International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision or other relevant coding systems and microbiological diagnosis. Age-specific incidence and prevalence rates will be computed using population denominators, and country-level age-adjusted rates will be applied to standard global reference populations to estimate the number of cases globally.

Ethical approval to conduct this study was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee at the University of Western Australia (reference: #2024/ET000401) and governance approval was obtained from The Kids Research Institute Australia. The findings from this study will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at Strep A Vaccine Global Consortium collaborative meetings.

Cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) is a lifelong condition affecting one in 700 births. In the UK, individuals born with CL/P follow a care pathway at specialist regional cleft centres, which includes input from a range of professionals including surgeons, speech and language therapists, cleft specialist nurses, orthodontists, dentists and clinical psychologists. The cleft centres provide care from diagnosis to early adulthood. Individuals born with CL/P are typically discharged from routine care at their cleft centre between the ages of 15 and 25 years.

Outcome measures of cleft care are currently gathered at different timepoints across the treatment pathway nationally and include outcomes for speech, growth, dental health and psychosocial well-being. However, there is no consistent reporting of outcomes for young adults when they complete routine care, meaning we do not know whether variation in outcomes exists and what this might look like.

This research programme will investigate whether outcomes vary based on factors such as geographical location, biological sex, socioeconomic status or ethnicity. By understanding how outcomes might vary, and the scale and type of variation, we plan to work with young adults born with CL/P and specialist clinicians to develop ways to ensure that everyone born with CL/P in the UK receives the optimum care to meet their needs.

Cleft@18–23 is an observational study of young adults born with CL/P. Recruitment is planned across all regions of the UK, beginning in April 2025 with research clinics scheduled to run between June 2025 and May 2027. The recruitment target is 640 participants born with CL/P. Participants with all cleft diagnoses, including those with additional syndromic diagnoses, will be eligible for recruitment. We will recruit participants from all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Data collection will include self-report participant questionnaires, speech samples, a hearing screen, two-dimensional and three-dimensional medical photographs, an intraoral scan and a dental assessment. A range of descriptive and inferential statistical analyses will explore variation in outcomes across different groups.

The Cleft@18–23 study obtained ethical approval from the South West-Frenchay Research Ethics Committee on 26 November 2024 (REC reference: 24/SW/0128). Informed consent will be required for participation. Findings from the Cleft@18–23 study will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, newsletters, the study website (https://www.bristol.ac.uk/cleft18-23) and social media.

ISRCTN34027276.

Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions characterised by pathological behaviours related to food intake, often accompanied by a chronic obsession with weight control. Their prevalence is increasing, with an earlier onset and greater severity among young people. Universal prevention, through multicomponent strategies that tackle modifiable risk factors, has emerged as a promising tool. This paper reports the study protocol designed to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the PRETA (Prevención de los Trastornos de la Alimentación) programme in reducing the risk of eating disorders and related modifiable risk factors among preadolescents in the school setting.

The PRETA programme will be assessed by means of an open, community-based, multicentre, controlled trial using 1:1 matched-pairs cluster randomisation at the school level. Schools in Tenerife (Spain) will be assigned to the PRETA programme or a waitlist control group. Participants include 5th- or 6th-grade students (10–13 years old), their parents and teachers. The PRETA programme is a universal, school-based, multicomponent programme designed to reduce eating-disorder risk and modifiable risk factors. Its main component is an interactive online platform called e-PRETA, complemented by training sessions for families and teachers. e-PRETA includes nine 45-minute sessions addressing risk factors, such as dietary habits, beauty standards, media literacy, self-esteem, emotional regulation and social skills. A total of 1068 children from 12 schools will participate. The primary outcome will be the risk of developing eating disorders (Children’s Eating Attitudes Test-26 item version). Secondary outcome measures are body dissatisfaction (Adapted Contour Drawing Rating Scale), eating disorder traits (Eating Disorder Inventory-2), internalisation of appearance ideals (Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-4) and self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale). Outcomes will be assessed at baseline and postintervention (3 months). Additional baseline covariates such as electronic device use, parental feeding attitudes, physical activity, sleep duration and screen time will also be collected. Programme effectiveness will be analysed using generalised mixed models. Cost-effectiveness will be assessed by comparing the incremental costs associated with the implementation of the PRETA programme with its estimated effectiveness.

Ethics approval has been obtained from the Ethics Committee for Research with Medicines at the University Hospital of the Canary Islands (CHUC_2021_78). Written informed consent will be obtained from the parents or legal guardians of all participants. Results will be disseminated through scientific publications and conferences.

NCT06792981.