Browsing by Author "Kapologwe, Ntuli A."

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    Acceptability of the direct health facility financing (DHFF) initiative in Tanzania: a mixed methods process evaluation of the moderating factors
    (John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2021) Kalolo, Albino; Kapologwe, Ntuli A.; Samky, Hendry; Kibusi, Stephen M.
    Despite wide agreement that stakeholder acceptability plays a critical role in an intervention's effectiveness, gaps remain on understanding acceptability of complex health financing interventions. We aimed to understand the moderators of acceptability of the Direct Health Facility Financing (DHFF) initiative across primary health facilities in Tanzania. Employing a mixed methods approach and guided by the theoretical framework for acceptability (TFA), we collected data from implementers and their supervisors using a structured questionnaire and semi-structured interview guides. We analysed data using a chi square test, logistic regression, and thematic analysis. We recruited 238 participants, of whom 71% were females and 54% were below 37 years old. Acceptability was found to be 63% and received high rating in qualitative interviews. Moderators of acceptability included sex (AOR = 1.93, p = 006), work experience (AOR = 3.47, p = 0.001), knowledge (13.8, p = 0.00), supportive work environment (AOR = 2.28, p = 0.019), and capability to implement the programme (AOR = 0.12, p = 0.00). Moderators reported in qualitative interviews related to individual and contextual factors. This study suggests that the DHFF initiative is acceptable and influenced by factors operating at the individual level and beyond. Addressing moderators of acceptability as programs are designed and implemented is the holy grail of acceptability of complex interventions.
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    Assessing health system responsiveness in primary health care facilities in Tanzania
    (BioMed Central, 2020) Kapologwe, Ntuli A.; Kibusi, Stephen M.; Borghi, Josephine; Gwajima, Dorothy O.; Kalolo, Albino
    Background: Health system performance is one of the important components of health care delivery; its achievement depends on the quality of services rendered and the health system responsiveness of its beneficiaries. Health system responsiveness is a multi-dimensional concept and is usually measured through several domains. Health system responsiveness (HSR) remains to be a key indicator for the evaluation of health system performance in any settings. This study aimed at assessing the situation of health system responsiveness in primary health facilities in Tanzania prior to the introduction of the Direct Health Facility Financing (DHFF) program. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted between January and February 2018. We collected data from 42 primary health facilities (14 health centres and 28 dispensaries) where a questionnaire was administered to a total of 422 participants. The questionnaire collected information on attention, respect to dignity, clear communication, autonomy, access to care, respect to confidentiality and basic amenities. Descriptive analysis was done to determine the distribution of the variables whereas ANOVA and linear regression analysis was employed to discern the association between variables. Results: More than 67% of participants had visited the same health facility more than 5 times. Sixty-seven percent of the patients were residing within 5kms from the public primary health care facilities. The geographical access to health care scored the lowest (43.5% for Dispensaries and 36% for Health centre) mean as compared to other domains of health system responsiveness. The highest score was with respect to confidentiality (86.7%) followed by respect to dignity (81.4%). Linear regression analysis revealed no statistical association between any of the social demographic features with the overall HSR performances. However, in post hoc analysis, Pwani and Shinyanga regions didn’t differ significantly in terms of their performances whereas those two regions differ from all other regions. Conclusion: Based on the study findings health system responsiveness domains has performed relatively poor in many regions except for respect of dignity and confidentiality scored high of all the domains. Shinyanga and Pwani regions scored relatively well in all domains this could have been due to the effect of Results Based Financing (RBF) in the respective regions. All in all the Government and other stakeholders in the health sector they should deliberately invest in the access to care domain as seem to be a challenge as compared to others.
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    The structural quality of maternal health services in primary health care facilities in Tanzania: findings from a baseline study
    (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), 2019) Kapologwe, Ntuli A.; Kalolo, Albino; Isanzu, Naomi H.; Borghi, Josephine; Kibusi, Stephen M.
    Background: Structural quality of maternal health services remains a key indicator of highly performing health care system. Evidence attest to the fact that introduction of the new interventions in the health care system does not necessarily lead into improvement of the target outcome, such as quality of health services delivered. This study aimed at assessing the structural quality of maternal health services prior to introduction of Direct Health Facility Financing (DHFF) program. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study, conducted in 42 public primary health facilities between January and mid February 2018. Observational were used to collect the data from health facilities. The collected information was on privacy, hygiene and sanitation, obstetric emergences, sterilization, maternal death audit reviews and waste management. Collected data were analyzed by using SPSS. Results: All 42 (100%) primary health facilities that were assessed were public primary health facilities, of which 14 (33.3%) were health centers and 28 were dispensaries. The furthest primary health facilities from the district head office were 140 Kms and the nearest 2 Kms. Focusing on; - privacy, hygiene and sanitation, obstetric emergences, sterilization, maternal death audit reviews and waste management assessed eight areas of Structural qualities. Majority (68.9%) of Health Centers has less than 39 skilled staff while some of them they have up to 129 health service providers and majority (92.8%) of Dispensaries have less than 15 staff and some have 1 staff. By comparing Dispensary and Health center performances on structural quality indicated relatively low differences among the attributes assessed. Specifically, they did not show statistical significant differences except for obstetric emergencies (p < .005), sterilization (p=. 034) and overall structural quality (p=. 018). With regard to rural-urban performance on structural quality, there was no statistical significant difference on total performance. Similarly, there was no significant differences between rural and urban health facilities on other assessed attributes of structural quality (p >.05) except for sterilization in which urban facilities performed significantly higher than the rural facilities [M=41.2, SD=27.7, 61.3, SD=28.4, respectively (p= .028)]. On the other hand, marginal differences were observed on individual assessed attributes. For examples, rural facilities performed relatively higher than urban ones on privacy (41.2 and 32.0), maternal death reviews (31.4 and 30.7) and waste management (49.0 and 47.3) respectively. Conclusion: Generally facilities performed low on the structural quality indicators of maternal health services provision however; they had high performance on sterilization and emergence obstetric care.
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    Understanding the implementation of direct health facility financing and its effect on health system performance inTanzania: a non-controlled before and aftermixed method study protocol
    (BioMed Central, 2019) Kapologwe, Ntuli A.; Kalolo, Albino; Kibusi, Stephen M.; Chaula, Zainab; Nswilla, Anna; Teuscher, Thomas; Aung, Kyaw; Borghi, Josephine
    Background: Globally, good health system performance has resulted from continuous reform, including adaptation of Decentralisation by Devolution policies, for example, the Direct Health Facility Financing (DHFF). Generally, the role of decentralisation in the health sector is to improve efficiency, to foster innovations and to improve quality,patient experience and accountability. However, such improvements have not been well realised in most low- and middle-income countries, with the main reason cited being the poor mechanism for disbursement of funds, which remain largely centralised. The introduction of the DHFF programme in Tanzania is expected to help improve the quality of health service delivery and increase service utilisation resulting in improved health system performance.This paper describes the protocol, which aims to evaluate the effects of DHFF on health system performance in Tanzania. Methods: An evaluation of the effect of the DHFF programme will be carried out as part of a nationwide programme rollout. A before and after non-controlled concurrent mixed methods design study will be employed to examine the effect of the DHFF programme implementation on the structural quality of maternal health, health facility governing committee governance and accountability, and health system responsiveness as perceived by the patients’ experiences. Data will be collected from a nationally representative sample involving 42 health facilities, 422 patient consultations, 54health workers, and 42 health facility governing committees in seven regions from the seven zones of the Tanzanian mainland. The study is grounded in a conceptual framework centered on the Theory of Change and the Implementation Fidelity Framework. The study will utilise a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data collection tools (questionnaires,focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and documentary review). The study will collect information related to knowledge, acceptability and practice of the programme, fidelity of implementation, structural qualities of maternal and child health services, accountability, governance, and patient perception of health system responsiveness. Discussion: This evaluation study will generate evidence on both the process and impact of the DHFF programme implementation, and help to inform policy improvement. The study is expected to inform policy on the implementation of DHFF within decentralised health system government machinery, with particular regard to health system strengthening through quality healthcare delivery. Health system responsiveness assessment, accountability and governance of Health Facility Government Committee should bring autonomy to lower levels and improve patient experiences. A major strength of the proposed study is the use of a mixed methods approach to obtain a more in-depth understanding of factors that may influence the implementation of the DHFF programme. This evaluation has the potential to generate robust data for evidence-based policy decisions in a low-income setting.