Blessing Mberu

Datos Biográficos

ID305648
NOMBREBlessing Mberu
NOMBRESBlessing
APELLIDOMberu
FIRMAMBERU B
AFILIACIONESAfrican Population and Health Research Center
ORCID0000-0002-6188-196X
VERIFICADOSí
TOTAL DE OBRAS48
TOTAL DE CITAS179
TOTAL COMO AUTOR48
TOTAL COMO EDITOR0
PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN2005
AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN2025
ÍNDICE H9

  • Gender equality and quality of life must be central to the design and delivery of sanitation

    Open AccessAkanksha Marphatia, Sheillah Simiyu et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2025

    box Sanitation is critical to improving quality of life and gender equality

  • The nexus of the risk of depression and residential mobility for urban poor mothers

    Open AccessTyler W Myroniuk, Estelle M Sidze et al.ARTICLESSM - Mental Health2025

    Introduction: In Africa, the nexus between mental well-being and residential mobility is understudied, especially in urban settings. World Health Organization estimates show that the African continent, as a whole, has some of the world's highest rates of postpartum depressive disorders. Understanding how residential mobility shapes the risk of depression among urban poor mothers in African contexts is of high importance to public health, given th…

  • Health inequalities at the intersection of multiple social determinants among under five children residing Nairobi urban slums

    Open AccessEliud Kibuchi, Ivy Chumo et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2024

    In this analysis we examine through an intersectionality lens how key social determinants of health (SDOH) are associated with health conditions among under-five children (

  • Spatial–Temporal Patterns in the Enteric Pathogen Contamination of Soil in the Public Environments of Low- and Middle-Income Neighborhoods in Nairobi, Kenya

    Open AccessFanta D Gutema, Bonphace Okoth et al.ARTICLEInternational Journal of…2024

    Public spaces in countries with limited societal development can be contaminated with feces containing pathogenic microbes from animals and people. Data on contamination levels, spatial distribution, and the diversity of enteric pathogens in the public settings of low- and middle-income neighborhoods are crucial for devising strategies that minimize the enteric infection burden. The objective of this study was to compare spatial-temporal differen…

  • Progress in Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health in Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa

    Open AccessCheikh Mbacké Faye, Blessing Mberu et al.ARTICLEJournal of Urban Health2024

  • Co-creation and self-evaluation

    Open AccessIvy Chumo, Caroline Kabaria et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Public Health2023

    Background: Accountability strategies are expected to enhance access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) service delivery in low-and middle-income countries (LMIC). Conventional formal social accountability mechanisms (SAMs) for WASH service delivery have been inadequate to meet the needs of residents in informal settlements in LMICs. This has prompted growing interest in alternative informal SAMs (iSAMs) in Nairobi's informal settlements. To…

  • Voices and challenges of marginalized and vulnerable groups in urban informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya

    Open AccessRobinson Karuga, Caroline Kabaria et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Public Health2023

    Urbanization is rapidly increasing across Africa, including in Nairobi, Kenya. Many people, recent migrants and long-term residents, live within dense and dynamic urban informal settlements. These contexts are fluid and heterogeneous, and deepening the understanding of how vulnerabilities and marginalization are experienced is important to inform pointed action, service delivery and policy priorities. The aim of this paper is to explore vulnerabi…

  • Community advisory committee as a facilitator of health and wellbeing

    Open AccessIvy Chumo, Caroline Kabaria et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Public Health2023

    Introduction: A range of community engagement initiatives to advance health and wellbeing are currently taking place in informal settlements in low and middle income countries (LMICs), including community and stakeholder meetings, use of radio, film, TV programs and other information, education and communication materials (IECs) organized by different stakeholders. While these initiatives tend to focus on unidirectional flow of information to com…

  • Complementarity of formal and informal actors and their networks in support of vulnerable populations in informal settlements

    Open AccessIvy Chumo, Caroline Kabaria et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Public Health2023

    Introduction: Beyond several interests and speculations on the relationship between formal and informal actors and their networks in support of vulnerable populations, most studies do not conclusively establish whether the two types of support are substitutes or complements. While informal care and formal care may be substitutes in general, they are complements among the vulnerable groups. Despite how some studies have described complementarity, …

  • Psychosocial support during the Covid-19 pandemic in informal settlements

    Open AccessIvy Chumo, Blessing Mberu et al.ARTICLESSM - Mental Health2023

    The Covid-19 pandemic has placed a significant burden on psychosocial health and wellbeing of childcare providers. The need to support childcare managers has been recognized. However, there is to date little research specifically on how best to support the mental health needs of childcare providers, and no studies on their own experiences and views about what might be most helpful. We set out to address this research gap by qualitatively explorin…

  • Informal social accountability mechanisms for water sanitation and hygiene (Wash) in childcare centres in Nairobi City County's informal settlements

    Open AccessIvy Chumo, Caroline Kabaria et al.ARTICLEUrban Governance2022Citada por: 1Referencias: 6

    Social accountability for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services is a critical component to realising child rights to WASH services by the urban poor, more so in childcare centres. Despite the existence of discrete social accountability mechanisms (SAMs) in informal settlements, informal SAMs rarely form part of strategic approaches to addressing social accountability challenges in access to WASH services in childcare centres. The main obj…

  • Characterization of Healthy Housing in Africa

    Open AccessSamuel Iddi, Kanyiva Muindi et al.ARTICLEJournal of Urban Health2022Referencias: 1

    Housing is a key social determinant of health with implications for both physical and mental health. The measurement of healthy housing and studies characterizing the same in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are uncommon. This study described a methodological approach employed in the assessment and characterization of healthy housing in SSA using the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data for 15 countries and explored healthy housing determinants using…

  • Fecal Sludge Management in Low Income Settlements

    Open AccessSheillah Simiyu, Ivy Chumo et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Public Health2021

    Introduction: In order to meet the sustainable development goals targets of sanitation, countries aim to increase access to safely managed sanitation services for its citizens. Safely managed sanitation services refers to improved sanitation technologies that are not shared with other households and where excreta is treated and disposed; or stored, transported and treated off-site. In most Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries, on-site sanitation fa…

  • Analysis of OpenStreetMap Data Quality at Different Stages of a Participatory Mapping Process

    Open AccessGodwin Yeboah, João Porto De Albuquerque et al.ARTICLEISPRS International Journal of…2021

    This paper examines OpenStreetMap data quality at different stages of a participatory mapping process in seven slums in Africa and Asia. Data were drawn from an OpenStreetMap-based participatory mapping process developed as part of a research project focusing on understanding inequalities in healthcare access of slum residents in the Global South. Descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis were employed to examine the following research ques…

  • Housing as a Social Determinant of Health

    Open AccessMeggie Mwoka, Olivia Biermann et al.ARTICLEJournal of Urban Health2021Citada por: 2Referencias: 4

  • Data, Social Determinants, and Better Decision-making for Health

    Open AccessOlivia Biermann, Meggie Mwoka et al.ARTICLEJournal of Urban Health2021Citada por: 2Referencias: 1

  • Impact of the societal response to Covid-19 on access to healthcare for non-Covid-19 health issues in slum communities of Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan

    Open AccessSyed Ahsanuddin Ahmed, Motunrayo Ajisola et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2020

    INTRODUCTION: With COVID-19, there is urgency for policymakers to understand and respond to the health needs of slum communities. Lockdowns for pandemic control have health, social and economic consequences. We consider access to healthcare before and during COVID-19 with those working and living in slum communities. METHODS: In seven slums in Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan, we explored stakeholder perspectives and experiences of healthc…

  • How to prevent and address safeguarding concerns in global health research programmes

    Open AccessBachera Aktar, Wafa Alam et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2020

    Safeguarding is rapidly rising up the international development agenda, yet literature on safeguarding in related research is limited. This paper shares processes and practice relating to safeguarding within an international research consortium (the ARISE hub, known as ARISE). ARISE aims to enhance accountability and improve the health and well-being of marginalised people living and working in informal urban spaces in low-income and middle-incom…

  • Slum Health

    Open AccessJason Corburn, David Vlahov et al.ARTICLEJournal of Urban Health2020Citada por: 56Referencias: 6

    The informal settlements of the Global South are the least prepared for the pandemic of COVID-19 since basic needs such as water, toilets, sewers, drainage, waste collection, and secure and adequate housing are already in short supply or non-existent. Further, space constraints, violence, and overcrowding in slums make physical distancing and self-quarantine impractical, and the rapid spread of an infection highly likely. Residents of informal se…

  • Nutrition transition, overweight and obesity among rural-to-urban migrant women in Kenya

    Open AccessRemco Peters, Dickson A Amugsi et al.ARTICLEPublic Health Nutrition2019

    Objective: To assess the effect of rural-to-urban migration on nutrition transition and overweight/obesity risk among women in Kenya. Design: Secondary analysis of data from nationally representative cross-sectional samples. Outcome variables were women’s BMI and nutrition transition. Nutrition transition was based on fifteen different household food groups and was adjusted for socio-economic and demographic characteristics. Stepwise backward mul…

  • A spectrum of methods for a spectrum of risk

    Open AccessDavid Dodman, Ibidun Adelekan et al.ARTICLEArea2019Referencias: 27

    Many African towns and cities face a range of hazards, which can best be described as representing a “spectrum of risk” of events that can cause death, illness or injury, and impoverishment. Yet despite the growing numbers of people living in African urban centres, the extent and relative severity of these different risks is poorly understood. This paper provides a rationale for using a spectrum of methods to address this spectrum of risk, and de…

  • Improving the health and welfare of people who live in slums

    Open AccessRichard Lilford, Richard J Lilford et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet2017

  • The history, geography, and sociology of slums and the health problems of people who live in slums

    Open AccessAlex Ezeh, Oyinlola Oyebode et al.ARTICLEThe Lancet2017

  • Differential effects of dietary diversity and maternal characteristics on linear growth of children aged 6–59 months in sub-Saharan Africa

    Open AccessDickson A Amugsi, Zacharie Tsala Dimbuene et al.ARTICLEPublic Health Nutrition2017

    Objective To investigate the differential effects of dietary diversity (DD) and maternal characteristics on child linear growth at different points of the conditional distribution of height-for-age Z -score (HAZ) in sub-Saharan Africa. Design Secondary analysis of data from nationally representative cross-sectional samples of singleton children aged 0–59 months, born to mothers aged 15–49 years. The outcome variable was child HAZ. Quantile regres…

  • An assessment of the evolution of Kenya’s solid waste management policies and their implementation in Nairobi and Mombasa

    Open AccessTilahun Haregu, Tilahun Nigatu Haregu et al.ARTICLEEnvironment and Urbanization2017Citada por: 3

    This paper provides a summary of the priorities and strategies stipulated by the major solid waste management (SWM) policies in Kenya. It also provides a brief assessment of their implementation in Nairobi and Mombasa, drawing on data from a 2016 community-based study. We found that SWM policies have evolved to specificity in terms of focus, functions and scope. There was a shift from criminalizing solid waste action or inaction to promoting good…