POLICY, HEALTH FACILITY AND COMMUNITY IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS OF THE STUDY OF ILLNESSES IN PRETERM (SIP PROJECT): SUMMARY RECOMMENDATIONS FROM A DISSEMINATION WORKSHOP

Abstract

The Study of Illness in Preterm (SIP) was designed in 2015 to identify the major causes of morbidity and mortality in preterm babies. Preterm complications are the commonest cause of neonatal mortality. The SIP study investigators in collaboration with Federal Ministry of Health-Ethiopia (FMOH) organized a dissemination workshop during the world prematurity day between Nov 17-18, 2021. The objective of the SIP dissemination workshop was to conduct a policy dialogue with policy makers and program implementers to support policy and practice changes. Five publications that have immediate policy and practice implications were selected and discussed in a dissemination workshop. These were hypothermia, preterm nutrition, bacterial isolates and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), antenatal corticosteroid utilization and respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). For each topic, the workshop assessed and documented the magnitude of the burden of disease, operationally feasible recommendations at policy, facility and community levels and potential implementation research ideas that could help facilitate rapid scale up of interventions.