Background: Undernutrition among infants and young children in South Asia remains a major public health concern, contributing to high rates of morbidity and mortality. While quantitative systematic reviews have identified various risk factors for undernutrition, no review has focused on qualitative studies. This study aims to review published literature on family member and healthcare provider perceptions about influences on undernutrition among infants and young children in South Asia. Methods: We searched for qualitative research articles published from 2000 to 2026 in the PubMed, Scopus and CINAHL databases, and used the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) tool to assess the quality of selected articles. Selected articles were analyzed thematically. The PROSPERO registration number is CRD42022385382. Results: After screening 201 research articles, 19 articles were selected for inclusion in this review. Perceived influences of undernutrition among children were categorized into individual, socio-cultural, economic, environmental and system factors. Interconnected influences included maternal illness, single motherhood, mothers’ knowledge and awareness, convenience of providing low-quality ready-made and junk food, spiritual beliefs and superstition, violence against women, financial constraints in a context of rising food prices and seasonal impacts on food production, and physical accessibility of healthcare services. Conclusions: This review emphasizes the complex interplay of influences on undernutrition among young children in South Asia. Potential interventions must be culturally tailored and gender-sensitive, with key strategies including nutrition education, community-based support, maternal health improvements, and policies addressing food insecurity and healthcare accessibility.

Background and objective: Child illness remains a significant public health challenge in low- and middle-income countries, including Bangladesh, with complex multifactorial causes extending beyond biomedical factors. This qualitative study explored perceived causes of child illness from the perspectives of caregivers and healthcare providers in rural and urban Bangladesh. Methods: Twenty-three in-depth interviews with primary caregivers, grandmothers, healthcare providers, and a group discussion with four community representatives revealed four primary categories of perceived illness causes. Results: Individual causes included maternal illness, forgetfulness, and knowledge gaps that affected caregiving practices, leading to missed vaccinations, poor hygiene and feeding practices. Socio-cultural causes included supernatural beliefs, intra-household power dynamics, domestic violence, maternal work burdens, early marriage, adolescent motherhood, and dowry practices. Economic causes included irregular income, rising food prices, and marketing of unhealthy products. Environmental causes included poor housing ventilation, inadequate waste management, heat wave exposure, urban air pollution, and water contamination, causing respiratory and waterborne diseases. Conclusions: These findings illustrate that child illness results from complex interactions between individual, socio-cultural, economic, and environmental causes. Potential interventions can address these multifaceted causes through comprehensive approaches including caregiver education, maternal empowerment strategies, economic support programs, and household environment improvements.

Background: Sepsis, a life-threatening condition resulting from a dysregulated immune response to infection, disproportionately affects children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Children with sepsis in LMICs face high mortality rates, with early detection and clinical monitoring posing significant challenges to effective management. There is great potential for digital technologies, such as wearable biosensor devices and mobile health (mHealth) clinical decision support (CDS) tools, together referred to as clinical decision support systems (CDSSs), to enable closer monitoring and more prompt recognition of children at risk of advanced sepsis and death. However, little is known about the perceptions of health care providers (HCPs) regarding the introduction of new digital health tools for pediatric sepsis care in LMICs. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess HCPs’ understanding, perceptions, and recommendations regarding the design and implementation of digital CDSSs for pediatric sepsis care in Bangladesh. Methods: Between February and May 2024, 18 individual semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted with HCPs (nurses and physicians) at 3 urban hospitals in Bangladesh. The data were transcribed, translated from Bangla to English, and analyzed using a framework matrix analysis approach. Participants were asked about familiarity with digital health tools, feedback on CDSS design, perceptions of the system’s utility, and barriers and facilitators to use of similar tools in clinical settings in Bangladesh. Results: Participants reported overall positive perceptions toward the potential implementation of a CDSS for pediatric sepsis care in Bangladesh. Some key priorities for the design of a CDSS were durability, reusability, cost considerations, reliability, and accuracy. Clinicians desired the CDS tool to also have customizable alarm parameters and include additional functions such as glucose monitoring. Many favored audio (ringtone) or visual (light) alarms to alert about changes in captured vital signs. HCPs believed that a CDSS could enhance patient care by allowing greater staff capacity to monitor patients, reducing management time, and aiding in faster clinical decision-making, with some suggesting it could lower mortality rates. Concerns regarding implementation included internet availability, affordability of the wearable devices, and trust in the CDSS outputs compared to expert clinician judgement. Conclusions: The findings of this study highlight HCPs’ perceptions toward the potential of wearable biosensor devices and CDS tools (CDSSs) for improving pediatric sepsis outcomes in LMICs and highlight the need to address implementation challenges to ensure the effective integration of CDSSs into health care systems.

BACKGROUND Sepsis, a life-threatening condition resulting from a dysregulated immune response to infection, disproportionately affects children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Children with sepsis in LMICs face high mortality rates, with early detection and clinical monitoring posing significant challenges to effective management. There is great potential for digital technologies, such as wearable biosensor devices and mobile health (mHealth) clinical decision support (CDS) tools, together referred to as clinical decision support systems (CDSSs), to enable closer monitoring and more prompt recognition of children at risk of advanced sepsis and death. However, little is known about the perceptions of health care providers (HCPs) regarding the introduction of new digital health tools for pediatric sepsis care in LMICs. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to assess HCPs’ understanding, perceptions, and recommendations regarding the design and implementation of digital CDSSs for pediatric sepsis care in Bangladesh. METHODS Between February and May 2024, 18 individual semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted with HCPs (nurses and physicians) at 3 urban hospitals in Bangladesh. The data were transcribed, translated from Bangla to English, and analyzed using a framework matrix analysis approach. Participants were asked about familiarity with digital health tools, feedback on CDSS design, perceptions of the system’s utility, and barriers and facilitators to use of similar tools in clinical settings in Bangladesh. RESULTS Participants reported overall positive perceptions toward the potential implementation of a CDSS for pediatric sepsis care in Bangladesh. Some key priorities for the design of a CDSS were durability, reusability, cost considerations, reliability, and accuracy. Clinicians desired the CDS tool to also have customizable alarm parameters and include additional functions such as glucose monitoring. Many favored audio (ringtone) or visual (light) alarms to alert about changes in captured vital signs. HCPs believed that a CDSS could enhance patient care by allowing greater staff capacity to monitor patients, reducing management time, and aiding in faster clinical decision-making, with some suggesting it could lower mortality rates. Concerns regarding implementation included internet availability, affordability of the wearable devices, and trust in the CDSS outputs compared to expert clinician judgement. CONCLUSIONS The findings of this study highlight HCPs’ perceptions toward the potential of wearable biosensor devices and CDS tools (CDSSs) for improving pediatric sepsis outcomes in LMICs and highlight the need to address implementation challenges to ensure the effective integration of CDSSs into health care systems.