Objective: To evaluate the effect of a two-way SMS intervention on postpartum contraceptive use among individual women and couple dyads. Methods: Mobile WACh XY was an unblinded randomized controlled trial conducted in two public county hospitals in western Kenya. Pregnant, HIV-negative women at least 14 years of age with ...

Antiretroviral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) alone or when co-formulated with emtricitabine (FTC), the same medication used for treatment of HIV infection, is a recommended and highly effective strategy to reduce the risk of sexual acquisition of HIV. The central objective of the ...

Introduction: Many older adults have multiple brain pathologies (aka mixed neuropathologies) at autopsy; however, the clinical importance of mixed neuropathologies is not well established. The objectives of this dissertation were 1.) to examine the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease neuropathologic change (ADNC), Lewy body ...

International agendas have increasingly focused on education as a powerful social determinant of child and maternal health outcomes. However, comparable indicators of educational attainment only exist at the national level, which may obscure subnational inequality in both levels and progress. The advent of increasingly granular ...

Malaria is a major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality and neonatal death in areas of malaria transmission. Worldwide, it is responsible for up to 100,000 neonatal deaths and 10,000 maternal deaths annually. There is a need for better information on the safety of antimalarial drugs for women and their fetuses. ...

Introduction: The multi-step cascade of care for prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) paves the way to potentially eliminating mother-to-child HIV transmission; yet, it also lays the foundation for attrition and disengagement from care, increasing the risk of morbidity and mortality for both mother and child. ...

Although gun violence is one of the most widely discussed issues in American politics, research funding freezes have hindered the development of public health strategies for its prevention. A substantial majority (approximately two-thirds) of annual gun deaths in the United States are suicides, but most political efforts to ...

Prenatal alcohol exposure is the leading known cause of preventable lifelong cognitive or behavioral disability. The spectrum of adverse outcomes observed among individuals with prenatal alcohol exposure is termed Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs) and can range from very mild to the most severe form, Fetal Alcohol ...

The sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer, the fourth most common cancer in women world-wide; young women (typically 18- to 24-year-old) have highest levels of infections. Online dating is becoming increasingly prevalent, especially among young women. Better understanding of HPV infection risk ...

Knowledge of one’s HIV status is vital to accessing treatment and prevention yet only a fraction of individuals in sub-Saharan Africa are regularly tested for HIV. Community-based HIV testing and counseling (HTC), defined as HTC conducted outside of a healthcare facility, has the potential to achieve high population testing ...