Stigma exacerbates power imbalances and societal disparities, significantly impacting diverse identities and health conditions, particularly for low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Though crucial for dismantling harmful stereotypes, and enhancing healthcare utilisation, existing research on anti-stigma interventions is limited with its condition-focused approach. We aimed to thoroughly evaluate peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed literature for a comprehensive review of anti-stigma interventions for diverse identities and all health conditions in LMICs. This review systematically explored peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed literature, in ten electronic databases up to January 30, 2024, covering all anti-stigma interventions across various stigmatised identities and health conditions in LMICs. Quality assessment for this systematic review was conducted as per Cochrane Collaboration's suggested inclusions. The review was registered with PROSPERO (Registration: 2017 CRD42017064283). Systematic synthesis of the 192 included studies highlights regional imbalances, while providing valuable insights on robustness and reliability of anti-stigma research. Most studies used quasi-experimental design, and most centred on HIV/AIDS or mental health related stigma, with very little work on other issues. Certain high-population LMICs had no/little representation. The interventions targeted diverse segments of populations and consequently yielded a multitude of stigma-related outcomes. However, despite the heterogeneity of studies, most reported positive outcomes underscoring the effectiveness of existing interventions to reduce stigma. This study is supported by the UK 10.13039/501100000265 Medical Research Council Indigo Partnership (MR/R023697/1) award.

A child’s risk of dying is highest in the neonatal period, i.e. the first 28 days of life. Newborn death accounts for nearly half of under-five death. More than 80% of newborn deaths are the result of preventable and treatable conditions. Ethiopia has made significant progress towards reducing under-five mortality; however, the rate of neonatal mortality (NMR) still accounts for 41% of under-five deaths. With this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aim to determine the magnitude, causes, and determinants of neonatal mortality in Ethiopia. We will conduct a comprehensive search of the following electronic databases: PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Google Scholar, and maternity and infant care databases as well as grey literature. We will assess the quality of studies by using Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) checklist. Two reviewers will screen all retrieved articles, conduct data extraction, and then critically appraise all identified studies. We will analyse data by using STATA 11 statistical software. We will demonstrate pooled estimates and determinants of neonatal mortality with effect size and 95% confidence interval. The result from this systematic review will inform and guide health policy planners and researchers on the burden, causes, and determinants of neonatal mortality in Ethiopia. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review in Ethiopia. We will synthesise the findings to generate up-to-date knowledge on neonatal mortality in Ethiopia. PROSPERO-CRD42018099663

Monitoring levels of alcohol-related harm in populations requires indicators that are robust to extraneous influence. We investigated the validity of an indicator for police-attributed alcohol-related assault. We summarized offence records from Queensland Police, investigated patterns of missing data, and considered the utility of a surrogate for alcohol-related assault. Of 242 107 assaults from 2004–2014, in 35% of cases the drug used by the offender was recorded as ‘unknown’. Under various assumptions about non-random missingness the proportion of assaults judged to be alcohol-related varied from 30%–65%. We found a sharp increase in missing data from 2007 suggesting the downward trend from that point is artefactual. Conversely, we found a stable and increasing trend using a time-based surrogate. The volume of missing data and other limitations preclude valid estimation of trends using the police indicator, and demonstrate how misleading results can be produced. Our analysis supports the use of an empirically-based surrogate indicator.