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Cited by 89Health and Conflict StudiesReproductive Health and ContraceptionGlobal Maternal and Child Health

Evaluating the effectiveness of sexual and reproductive health services during humanitarian crises: A systematic review

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Singh, Neha S., Smith, James, Aryasinghe, Sarindi, Khosla, Rajat, Say, Lale, Blanchet, Karl·2018·PLOS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0199300PMC PMC6035047
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: An estimated 32 million women and girls of reproductive age living in emergency situations, all of whom require sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information and services. This systematic review assessed the effect of SRH interventions, including the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) on a range of health outcomes from the onset of emergencies. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We searched EMBASE, Global Health, MEDLINE and PsychINFO databases from January 1, 1980 to April 10, 2017. This review was registered with the PROSPERO database with identifier number CRD42017082102. We found 29 studies meet the inclusion criteria. We found high quality evidence to support the effectiveness of specific SRH interventions, such as home visits and peer-led educational and counselling, training of lower-level health care providers, community health workers (CHWs) to promote SRH services, a three-tiered network of health workers providing reproductive and maternal health services, integration of HIV and SRH services, and men's discussion groups for reducing intimate partner violence. We found moderate quality evidence to support transport-based referral systems, community-based SRH education, CHW delivery of injectable contraceptives, wider literacy programmes, and birth preparedness interventions. No studies reported interventions related to fistulae, and only one study focused on abortion services. CONCLUSIONS: Despite increased attention to SRH in humanitarian crises, the sector has made little progress in advancing the evidence base for the effectiveness of SRH interventions, including the MISP, in crisis settings. A greater quantity and quality of more timely research is needed to ascertain the effectiveness of delivering SRH interventions in a variety of humanitarian crises.

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  • The past decade has seen a push toward understanding ANC utilization behavior and the effects of targeted community-based programs in crisis settings.

    “The past decade has seen a push toward understanding ANC utilization behavior and the effects of targeted community-based programs, including the training of community health workers, home visits, and peer-led educational campaigns on ANC utilization and facility-based deliveries in crisis settings [18, 28–30].”

    From Predictors of antenatal care utilization among the Rohingya population in the refugee camps of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh (2025) · cites this paper as [29]

    The Results (Pregnancy & maternal and newborn health; page unavailable) review community-health-worker education, home visits, and education campaigns in crisis settings, with reported outcomes for antenatal visits or facility-based delivery. This supports the claim’s broad point about studying community-based programs, but the copy does not identify the ANC campaigns as peer-led or specifically describe a push to understand ANC utilization behavior. (LLM, conf=0.83)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Singh, N. S., Smith, J., Aryasinghe, S., Khosla, R., Say, L., & Blanchet, K.
Affiliations
  • London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (GB)
  • World Health Organization (CH)
Corresponding author
Singh, Neha S.
ORCID
Venue
PLOS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2018-07-06
Volume
13
Issue
7
Pages
e0199300
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0199300
PMC
PMC6035047
OpenAlex
W2819945901
Cited by
89
References
6
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 1
FWCI
1.46
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • LSHTM Research Online (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) (acceptedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Spiral (Imperial College London) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
World Health Organization
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health and Conflict Studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Reproductive Health and Contraception
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Global Maternal and Child Health
Keywords
sexual and reproductive health, humanitarian crisis, emergency situations, health service effectiveness, community health workers, home visits, intimate partner violence, childbirth preparation, obstetric care, health professions education, health literacy
MeSH terms
Community Health Workers, Contraceptive Agents, Delivery of Health Care, Female, Humans, Maternal Health Services, Pregnancy, Relief Work, Sexual Behavior, Global Health, Reproductive Health Services, Reproductive Health

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