Women Health

Are There Differences between the Stress Responses of Philippine Men and Women to the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Divya Periyakoil
Preethi Periyakoil
Cherica A Tee
Costas J Spanos
Marie Diener-West
Michael Tee
Ndola Prata
2023

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had a deleterious impact on human health since its beginning in 2019. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines and determine if there were differential impacts on women compared to men. A web-based survey was conducted in the Luzon Islands of the Philippines, during the pandemic quarantine. A total of 1879 participants completed online surveys between 28 March–12 April 2020. A bivariate analysis of both men and women for each psychological measure (stress, anxiety, depression, and impact...

Waiting to start abortion: A qualitative exploration of narratives of waiting shared in a Reddit community for abortion post-Dobbs leak in 2022

Karen Weidert
Ndola Prata
Cassondra Marshall
Emma Anderson
Eliza Dolgins
Lindsay Parham
Ushma D. Upadhyay
Elizabeth Pleasants
2024

With the Dobbs leak introducing uncertainty about access and the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in June of 2022 overturning the US constitutional right to abortion, delays in accessing desired abortion care are likely growing longer and more common. Timely research on people’s experiences waiting to access abortion care is needed. Using data from an abortion subreddit (r/abortion), we analyzed posts that described waiting after having decided to terminate the pregnancy, either by having an in-clinic appointment or ordering medication(s) online for self-managed...

Using Natural Language Processing to Describe the Use of an Online Community for Abortion During 2022: Dynamic Topic Modeling Analysis of Reddit Posts

Elizabeth Pleasants
Ndola Prata
Ushma D Upadhyay
Cassondra Marshall
Coye Cheshire
2025
Background Abortion access in the United States has been in a state of rapid change and increasing restriction since the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision from the US Supreme Court in June 2022. With further constraints on access to abortion since Dobbs, the internet and online communities are playing an increasingly important role in people’s abortion trajectories. There is a need for a broader understanding of how online resources are used for abortion and how they may reflect changes in the sociopolitical and legal context of abortion access. Research...

Innovation through telemedicine to improve medication abortion access in primary health centers: findings from a pilot study in Musanze District, Rwanda

Ndola Prata
Karen Weidert
Evangeline Dushimeyesu
Eugène Kanyamanza
Dushimiyimana Blaise
Sharon Umutesi
Eugène Ngoga
Felix Sayinzoga
2025

In 2012 Rwanda expanded legal grounds for abortion to include cases of rape, incest, forced marriage, the health of a pregnant person or fetus at risk, and for minors on request in 2018. The penal code limits abortion care to doctors in hospitals, impeding access for many women. We tested an intervention that provides first-trimester medication abortion at primary health centers, using telemedicine to connect nurses/midwives to doctors in district hospitals for authorization of services. We implemented a 15-month prospective study to assess the feasibility, effectiveness, safety, and...

Bone mineral density changes during use of progestin-only contraceptives: a rapid review of recent evidence.

Blake Erhardt-Ohren
Ndola Prata
Scott Rosenblum
2025
Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to consolidate existing evidence and identify knowledge and research gaps on the bone health effects of progestin-only oral contraception, injectables, hormonal intrauterine devices, and implants. implementation.

Data sources: We searched PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, and The Cochrane Library for conference abstracts, original research articles, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses published between 05 May 2012 and 31 August 2023.

Study eligibility criteria: We limited...

Matrescence: A Critical and Sensitive Period in the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Life Course Perspective

Ndola Prata, MD, MSc
Cassondra Marshall, DrPH, MPH
Mounika Parimi, MPH
2025

The life course perspective has provided a grounding framework for maternal and child health (MCH) research and practice. By emphasizing the cumulative impact of social, economic, and environmental influences across the life span, the framework has informed the development of effective interventions in MCH (Bazzano et al., 2025). Although much progress has been made, there remains an opportunity to more explicitly address the unique developmental needs of maternal health during the transition to motherhood. This commentary argues that the transformative period that birthing people...

Abortion safety in Ghana: does motivation matter?. BMC Public Health

Karen Weidert
Jalang Conteh
Maureen Lahiff
Kim Harley
Ndola Prata
2025

In Ghana, abortion is restricted except on a few legal grounds. About 11% of maternal deaths in Ghana are due to unsafe abortion. This study investigated the association between abortion motivation (the primary reason women sought abortion) and abortion safety.

To read the complete article, please click here.

Using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to Access Google Data and Gain Insights Into Searches on Birth Control in Louisiana and Mississippi, 2014-2018: Infoveillance Study

Ndola Prata
Karen Weidert
Anne Zepecki
Elina Yon
Elizabeth Pleasants
Petrice Sams-Abiodun
Sylvia Guendelman
2021

Background: It is now common to search for health information online. A 2013 Pew Research Center survey found that 77% of online health seekers began their query at a search engine. The widespread use of online health information seeking also applies to women’s reproductive health. Despite online interest in birth control, not much is known about related interests and concerns reflected in the search terms in the United States.

Objective: In this study, we identify the top search terms on Google related to birth control in Louisiana and Mississippi and compare those results to the...

Professor Ndola Prata's exceptional undergraduate students from the PH181 course Poverty and Population this fall semester have communicated with their United States representatives!

December 18, 2025

This fall 2025 semester Professor Ndola Prata has six exceptional undergraduate students from the PH181 course Poverty and Population who have communicated with their United States representatives, expressing their strong arguments for contraceptives as foreign aid for USAID, comprehensive sex education in public schools, abortion pills, community protection from hunger and climate stress, food security and women's access to reproductive care. These students are Rishabh Ganesh Balamitran, Raka Bose, Alyssa Chan, Rosalie Güitrón,...

Matrescence: A Critical and Sensitive Period in the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Life Course Perspective

December 8, 2025
The life course perspective, while foundational to maternal and child health (MCH) research, requires refinement to explicitly address the unique developmental needs of the transition to motherhood. In this commentary, jointly written with the Wallace Center, we argue that the concept of "matrescence"—the transformative period encompassing pregnancy and postpartum—should be integrated as a critical and sensitive period within the MCH life course framework. Access the full article...