Background Adolescents 360 (A360) implements the Smart Start (SS) programme through Ethiopia's Health Extension Programme (HEP). SS is premised on financial planning as an entry point to discuss family planning (FP) with newly married couples and central to its delivery are the health extension workers (HEW). This article evaluates the A360 experience and learning from the process evaluation implemented by Itad to understand contextual barriers and enablers from the perspective of the HEW. CCT251545 in vivo Methods A purposive sampling strategy was employed whereby 27 key stakeholders were identified from Oromia, Addis Ababa and Amhara, based on exposure to the SS programme. Findings from the action research were shared with A360 through a one day sounding workshop. Results Findings revealed that many local government and communal respondents do not view adolescent pregnancy as a problem, unless out of wedlock, and adolescent pregnancy is closely linked to early marriage. As a result, some providers, including HEWs, acknowledged that married adolescent girls were previously 'neglected' by them, while husbands indicated that they had not previously been included in FP counselling. Findings also revealed some challenges with SS implementation as HEWs were 'deprioritizing' the intervention and many HEWs had been in situ for several years and were overworked and frustrated. Against this backdrop, A360 was viewed as adding to the HEW workload. While the programme design was focused on adolescent users, there was increasing recognition that HEWs also needed to be at the centre of solution design. Conclusions Despite challenges associated with the HEP, Ethiopia FP2020 plans to support the 'next generation' of HEWs, including a focus on adolescents and youth. To gain deeper insight and put the HEW at the centre of design, A360 will continue to work with the process evaluation to understand contextual barriers and enablers from the perspective of the HEW. Copyright © 2019 Appleford G et al.Background Women living with HIV have the right to choose whether, when and how many children to have. Access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and contraceptives, including implants, continues to increase due to a multitude of efforts. In Kenya, 4.8% of adults are living with HIV, and in 2017, 54% were receiving an efavirenz-based ART regimen. Meanwhile, 16.1% of all Kenyan married (and 10.4% of unmarried) women used implants. Studies have reported drug interactions leading to contraceptive failures among implant users on ART. This retrospective record review aimed to determine unintentional pregnancy rates among women 15-49 years of age, living with HIV and concurrently using implants and ART in western Kenya between 2011 and 2015. Methods We reviewed charts of women with more than three months of concurrent implant and ART use. Implant failure was defined as implant removal due to pregnancy or birth after implant placement, but prior to scheduled removal date. The incidence of unintended pregnancy was calculated by woman-years at risk, assuming a constant rate. Results Data from 1,152 charts were abstracted, resulting in 1,190 implant and ART combinations. We identified 115 pregnancies, yielding a pregnancy incidence rate of 6.32 (5.27-7.59), with 9.26 among ETG and 4.74 among LNG implant users, respectively. No pregnancies were recorded among women on non-NNRTI-based regimens, whereas pregnancy rates for efavirenz and nevirapine-containing regimens were similar, at 6.41 (4.70-8.73) and 6.44 (5.13-8.07), respectively. Conclusions Our findings highlight the implications of drug interaction on women's choices for contraception. Copyright © 2019 Pfitzer A et al.Background Air pollution has been associated with hypertension and preterm birth. We examined if prenatal exposure to air pollutants was associated with gestational hypertension and if its association with preterm birth was modified by maternal hypertension. Methods Data were from birth certificates and hospital discharge records of 252,205 women in San Joaquin Valley of California from 2000-2006. Air quality data were assigned from 24-hour averages of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matter less then 10μm (PM10) and less then 2.5μm (PM2.5), and carbon monoxide (CO) for different averaging periods over pregnancy. We estimated odds of preterm birth and multiplicative interaction between each pollutant and hypertensive disorder. Results Among normotensive women, odds of preterm birth were slightly higher for higher exposure to all pollutants over the entire pregnancy. Patterns were similar among women with a hypertensive disorder. Among 32-36 week births there was effect modification for exposure to NO2 and CO during the first trimester with higher odds among hypertensive women, and PM2.5 and CO during the last six weeks with higher odds among normotensive women. For 28-31 week births, there was effect modification by hypertensive status for PM10 exposure for entire pregnancy, first, and second trimester with hypertensive women consistently having lower odds of preterm birth than normotensive. Conclusion There was some evidence of effect modification in the direction counter to our hypothesis for exposure to PM10 and early preterm birth, and CO and PM2.5 at the end of pregnancy, but overall, hypertension did not modify the relationship between pollution and preterm birth.Background Exposure to mercury (Hg) is associated with adverse developmental effects. However, Hg occurs with a multitude of chemicals. We assessed the associations of developmental exposure to multiple pollutants with children's neurodevelopment using a novel approach. Methods Hg, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and perfluoroalkyl substances were measured in maternal and children's blood at 5-years (n=449 and 419). At 7-years, children were administered Boston Naming Test (BNT) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). We used the G-formula combined with SuperLearner to estimate independent and joint effects of chemicals at both ages. We constructed flexible exposure-response relationships and assessed interactions. Results Most chemicals showed negative relationships with BNT scores. An inter-quartile range (IQR) increase in maternal Hg and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was associated with 0.15 standard deviation [SD] (95% Confidence Interval [CI] -0.29,-0.03) and 0.14 SD (95%CI -0.26,-0.05) lower scores in BNT, whereas a joint IQR increase in the mixture of chemicals was associated with 0.