Setting research priorities to improve global newborn health and prevent stillbirths by 2025.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

In 2013, an estimated 2.8 million newborns died and 2.7 million were stillborn. A much greater number suffer from long term impairment associated with preterm birth, intrauterine growth restriction, congenital anomalies, and perinatal or infectious causes. With the approaching deadline for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015, there was a need to set the new research priorities on newborns and stillbirth with a focus not only on survival but also on health, growth and development. We therefore carried out a systematic exercise to set newborn health research priorities for 2013-2025.

METHODS:

We used adapted Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) methods for this prioritization exercise. We identified and approached the 200 most productive researchers and 400 program experts, and 132 of them submitted research questions online. These were collated into a set of 205 research questions, sent for scoring to the 600 identified experts, and were assessed and scored by 91 experts.

RESULTS:

Nine out of top ten identified priorities were in the domain of research on improving delivery of known interventions, with simplified neonatal resuscitation program and clinical algorithms and improved skills of community health workers leading the list. The top 10 priorities in the domain of development were led by ideas on improved Kangaroo Mother Care at community level, how to improve the accuracy of diagnosis by community health workers, and perinatal audits. The 10 leading priorities for discovery research focused on stable surfactant with novel modes of administration for preterm babies, ability to diagnose fetal distress and novel tocolytic agents to delay or stop preterm labour.

CONCLUSION:

These findings will assist both donors and researchers in supporting and conducting research to close the knowledge gaps for reducing neonatal mortality, morbidity and long term impairment. WHO, SNL and other partners will work to generate interest among key national stakeholders, governments, NGOs, and research institutes in these priorities, while encouraging research funders to support them. We will track research funding, relevant requests for proposals and trial registers to monitor if the priorities identified by this exercise are being addressed.

• Authors: Sachiyo Yoshida, José Martines, Joy E Lawn, Stephen Wall, Joăo Paulo Souza, Igor Rudan, Simon Cousens, neonatal health research priority setting group, Peter Aaby, Ishag Adam, Ramesh Kant Adhikari, Namasivayam Ambalavanan, Shams Ei Arifeen, Dhana Raj Aryal, Sk Asiruddin, Abdullah Baqui, Aluisio Jd Barros, Christine S Benn, Vineet Bhandari, Shinjini Bhatnagar, Sohinee Bhattacharya, Zulfiqar A Bhutta, Robert E Black, Hannah Blencowe, Carl Bose, Justin Brown, Christoph Bührer, Wally Carlo, Jose Guilherme Cecatti, Po-Yin Cheung, Robert Clark, Tim Colbourn, Agustin Conde-Agudelo, Erica Corbett, Andrew E Czeizel, Abhik Das, Louise Tina Day, Carolyn Deal, Ashok Deorari, Uğur Dilmen, Mike English, Cyril Engmann, Fabian Esamai, Caroline Fall, Donna M Ferriero, Peter Gisore, Tabish Hazir, Rosemary D Higgins, Caroline Se Homer, D E Hoque, Lorentz Irgens, M T Islam, Joseph de Graft-Johnson, Martias Alice Joshua, William Keenan, Soofia Khatoon, Helle Kieler, Michael S Kramer, Eve M Lackritz, Tina Lavender, Laurensia Lawintono, Richard Luhanga, David Marsh, Douglas McMillan, Patrick J McNamara, Ben Willem J Mol, Elizabeth Molyneux, G K Mukasa, Miriam Mutabazi, Luis Carlos Nacul, Margaret Nakakeeto, Indira Narayanan, Bolajoko Olusanya, David Osrin, Vinod Paul, Christian Poets, Uma M Reddy, Mathuram Santosham, Rubayet Sayed, Natalia E Schlabritz-Loutsevitch, Nalini Singhal, Mary Alice Smith, Peter G Smith, Sajid Soofi, Catherine Y Spong, Shahin Sultana, Antoinette Tshefu, Frank van Bel, Lauren Vestewig Gray, Peter Waiswa, Wei Wang, Sarah LA Williams, Linda Wright, Anita Zaidi, Yanfeng Zhang, Nanbert Zhong, Isabel Zuniga, Rajiv Bahl
• Journal: Journal of global health (J Glob Health) Vol. 6 Issue 1 Pg. 010508 (Jun 2016) ISSN: 2047-2978 [Print] Scotland
• PMID: 26401272 (Publication Type: Journal Article)