The Countdown collaboration contributed to the reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) and nutrition scientific literature through four journal supplements and more than 20 standalone papers. The papers included topics that have long been central to Countdown’s work, such as child survival, and topics that have come to the fore more recently, such as adolescent health, conflict and humanitarian emergencies, and improving analysis of routine health facility data.
These publications supported Countdown’s mission by advancing the measurement and monitoring of RMNCAH and nutrition indicators with a major emphasis on equity and maximizing the use of available datasets to inform global, regional, national and subnational decision-making.
This year’s journal supplements were:
- Organizing, editing and writing supplements on adolescent sexual and reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa and use of health facility data.
- Contributions to Lancet supplements about women’s and children’s health in conflict settings and progress on reducing maternal and child undernutrition.
The standalone papers included analyses of:
- Measuring antenatal care quality and inequalities in antenatal care,
- Sex differentials and sex ratio in under-five child mortality,
- Coverage of RMNCAH interventions by socioeconomic inequalities and women’s empowerment,
- Geographical differences in fertility,
- Breastfeeding trends and the relationship between maternal education and breastfeeding,
- Vaccine hesitancy, risk factors for non-vaccination, the immunization cascade, and geospatial methods for estimating vaccine coverage,
- Maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response,
- Tracking levels of RMNCAH aid,
- Country-level analyses for Ecuador, South Africa, and India looking at digital tools and contraceptive use, and
- Digital health policy.
Countdown has published more than 260 peer-reviewed papers since 2005. In 2022, Countdown expects to expand its focus to include research on COVID-19’s impact on the continuation of essential health services, urban maternal and child health in Africa, and to continue advancing the science around RMNCAH and nutrition measurement.