Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation

Incremental costs of scaling up kangaroo mother care: Results from implementation research in Ethiopia and India

WHO KMC Scale Up Study Group. Acta Paediatr. 2023 Aug.

Abstract

Aim: To estimate incremental costs of an implementation model for scaling up Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) for neonates with birthweight <2000 g.

Methods: Seven sites across Ethiopia and India collected data for 2018-19 to calculate incremental recurrent costs (of health worker time, supplies, and operations) and start-up costs for KMC scale up. The costs were estimated per live newborn <2000 g eligible for KMC identified in the study population.

Results: Scaling up KMC in study districts required average incremental costs of US$59 (95% CI US$ 52-67) in Ethiopia and US$72 (95% CI US$ 41-103) in India per eligible newborn in the population. Most of these costs were recurrent; the annualised start-up costs per eligible newborn ranged from 12%-25% of total costs in Ethiopia and 9%-16% in India. The major cost driver was human resources, followed by initial and recurrent training, supplies, and communications costs. Incremental infrastructure costs were only 2%-6% of total costs in both countries. Most of the costs were for activities at the KMC implementing facility, accounting for 79%-88% of the total costs in Ethiopia and 89%-93% of those in India.

Conclusion: The costs for successful scale up of KMC seem affordable but must be included in programme budgets.

Keywords: Ethiopia; India; drivers of costs; incremental costs; kangaroo mother care.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Blencowe H, Krasevec J, de Onis M, et al. National, regional, and worldwide estimates of low birthweight in 2015, with trends from 2000: a systematic analysis. Lancet Glob Health. 2019;7(7):e849-e860. doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(18)30565-5
    1. Conde-Agudelo A, Díaz-Rossello JL. Kangaroo mother care to reduce morbidity and mortality in low birthweight infants. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016;8:CD002771.
    1. Hailegebriel TD, Bergh AM, Zaka N, et al. Improving the implementation of kangaroo mother care. Bull World Health Organ. 2021;99:69-71.
    1. Charpak N, Angel MI, Banker D, Bergh A-M, Bertolotto AM, et al. Strategies discussed at the XIIth international conference on kangaroo mother care for implementation on a countrywide scale. Acta Paediatr. 2020;109:2278-2286.
    1. Mazumdar S, Taneja S, Dube B, et al. Effect of community-initiated kangaroo mother care on survival of infants with low birthweight: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet. 2019;394:1724-1736.

LinkOut - more resources