Identifying priorities for guidelines on newborn and child health in Malawi: a protocol for a priority setting exercise, version 1.0
Abstract
Type of Research: A cross sectional study design will be applied to set the priority topics related to Poverty Related Diseases in the field of new born and child health for guideline development or adaptation in Malawi.
Problem Statement: Despite progress in the health of young children globally, most countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) fall below the average gains and do not meet maternal and child health targets set by Sustainable Development Goal number 3 to ‘ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing’. Poverty related diseases (PRD) remain amongst the leading causes of death in children under-5 years, including pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria. Guidelines based on the best available evidence are key to informing care and funding decisions. The guideline development process can be complex and resource-intensive, and there is scope for improvement in the process in sub Saharan Africa (SSA).
Objectives: The GELA project is where the impact of research on poverty-related diseases will be maximised through enhancing researchers and decision makers’ capacity to use global research to develop locally relevant Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) for poverty-related diseases (PRDs) in the field of new born and child health. The first step of this project will be a priority setting process. This will ensure that stakeholders shape the project by advising us about the important issues and conditions to be addressed in clinical guidelines.
Methods: Mixed methods will be employed following good practice methods for priority setting. These will include stakeholder mapping, and stakeholder engagement and document review to identify an initial long list of potential priority topics, in the pre-prioritisation stage; and an online survey with a broad range of stakeholders followed by a consensus meeting with a guideline steering group to identify the final priority topics in the prioritisation stage. The stakeholders will be asked to rank the proposed topics in
order of importance according to pre-specified criteria.
Expected findings and their dissemination: The priority setting process will identify top three priority topics. These will be shared with the Steering Committee in the Ministry of Health, the College of Medicine Research and Ethics Committee (COMREC) and the wider team of stakeholders. The topics will further be taken forward to the next steps in the GELA project, i.e. to develop or update guidance on these topics.
Description
Keywords
Identifying priorities for guidelines on newborn and child health