Results

The Salud Mesoamerica Initiative (SMI) is a three-operation strategy, and is a pioneer in the world of results-based aid (RBA) in terms of the success it has achieved in improving health system inputs following its initial operation. We investigated the influential aspects of SMI that could have contributed to its effectiveness in improving health systems, with the aim of providing international donors, bilateral organizations, philanthropies, and recipient countries with new perspectives that can help increase the effectiveness of future assistance for health, specifically in the arena of RBA.

Professional skilled care has shown to be one of the most promising strategies to reduce maternal mortality, and in-facility deliveries are a cost-effective way to ensure safe births. We examined the characteristics of women who had a delivery in a health facility and determinants of the decision to bypass a closer facility and travel to a distant one.

We applied the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction to analyze factors associated with risky sexual behaviors for adolescent students living in the poorest segments in Costa Rica.

Indigenous women in Mesoamerica experience disproportionately high maternal mortality rates and are less likely to have institutional deliveries. Identifying correlates of institutional delivery, and satisfaction with institutional deliveries, may help improve facility utilization and health outcomes in this population. We used baseline surveys from the Salud Mesoamérica Initiative to analyze data from 10,895 indigenous and non-indigenous women in Guatemala and Mexico (Chiapas State) and indigenous women in Panama. 

Recent outbreaks of measles in the Americas have received news and popular attention, noting the importance of vaccination to population health. To estimate the potential increase in immunization coverage and reduction in days at risk if every opportunity to vaccinate a child was used, we analyzed vaccination histories of children 11–59 months of age from large household surveys in Mesoamerica.

Timely and accurate measurement of population protection against measles is critical for decision-making and prevention of outbreaks. However, little is known about how survey-based estimates of immunization (crude coverage) compare to the seroprevalence of antibodies (effective coverage), particularly in low-resource settings. In poor areas of Mexico and Nicaragua, we used household surveys to gather information on measles immunization from child health cards and caregiver recall. 

Seroepidemiological monitoring of population immunity to vaccine-preventable diseases is critical to prevent future outbreaks. This study validates a novel technique for measuring measles-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) in capillary DBS using a commercial ELISA.