9 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
Item Do health education initiatives assist socioeconomically disadvantaged populations? A systematic review and meta-analyses(BMC Public Health, 2023) E. L. Karran; A. R. Grant; H. Lee; S. J. Kamper; C. M. Williams; L. K. Wiles; R. Shala; C. V. Poddar; T. Astill; G. L. MoseleyHealth education interventions are considered critical for the prevention and management of conditions of public health concern.Item Burden, patterns, and impact of multimorbidity in North India: findings from a rural population-based study(BMC Public Health, 2022) Priti Gupta; Shivani A. Patel; Hanspria Sharma; Prashant Jarhyan; Rakshit Sharma; Dorairaj Prabhakaran; Nikhil Tandon; Sailesh MohanThis study estimates the prevalence, socio-demographic determinants, common disease combinations, and health impact of multimorbidity among a young rural population.Item Community perceptions of vaccination among influential stakeholders: qualitative research in rural India(BMC Public Health, 2021) Baldeep K. Dhaliwal; Riti Chandrashekhar; Ananya Rattani; Rajeev Seth; Svea Closser; Anika Jain; David E. Bloom; Anita ShetBackground In India and other low- and middle-income countries, multiple family and community members are influential in caregivers' perceptions of vaccination. Existing literature indicates the primary caregiver, typically the mother, is instrumental in vaccine decision-making, but this may vary in contexts. We investigated the role of stakeholders in India who influence caregivers' vaccination perceptions, as this is essential to developing strategies to promote vaccine acceptance and improve uptake. Methods This research was conducted in 2019 in Mewat District in Haryana, an area in India with extremely low vaccination coverage. We conducted six focus group discussions with 60 participants in the following categories: fathers of children under-5 years old, expectant mothers, mothers-in-law, community health workers, and community influencers such as locally elected officials and religious leaders. Results Our results highlighted four themes that influence vaccine uptake. First, while caregivers associated vaccination with reductions in specific diseases, they also noted that vaccination services brought broad health gains, including improved nutrition, antenatal guidance, and social support. Second, community health workers critically influenced, positively or negatively, caregivers' vaccination perceptions. Third, community health workers faced gaps in their education such as limited training on vaccine side-effects, placing them at a disadvantage when dealing with families. Finally, we found that mothers-in-law, fathers, and religious leaders influence caregivers' perceptions of vaccination. Conclusions Communication of broader benefits of vaccines and vaccination services by community health workers could be impactful in increasing vaccine acceptance. Vaccine uptake could potentially be improved by facilitating community health workers' ownership over vaccine acceptance and uptake by involving them in the design and implementation of interventions to target mothers and mothers-in-law. A 'bottom-up' approach, leveraging community health workers' knowledge to design interventions, and giving a voice to key members of the household and society beyond mothers alone, may sustain health improvement in low vaccine coverage areas.Item Medical schools in India: pattern of establishment and impact on public health - a Geographic Information System (GIS) based exploratory study(BMC Public Health, 2020) Yogesh Sabde; Vishal Diwan; Vijay K. Mahadik; Vivek Parashar; Himanshu Negandhi; Tanwi Trushna; Sanjay ZodpeyThis study explores the geographic distribution of medical schools in India to identify such under and over served areas.Item A decade of conditional cash transfer programs for reproductive health in India: How did equality fare?(BMC Public Health, 2022) Deepali Godha; David R. HotchkissBackground Since 2005, India has implemented conditional cash transfer [CCT] programs to promote the uptake of institutional delivery services [ID]. The study aims to assess changes in wealth-based inequality in the use of ID and other maternal health care services during the first decade of Janani Suraksha Yojana and related CCT programs. Methods Data from two Demographic and Health Surveys were used to calculate changes in service inequality from 2005 to 2015-16 in the use of three or more antenatal care [ANC] visits, ID, and postnatal care [PNC]. The changes were assessed at the national level, within high and low performing states [HPS and LPS, respectively] and within urban and rural areas of each state category. Erreygers Index [EI] and Wagstaff Index [WI], superior to concentration index, were used to gain different insights into the nature of inequality. EI is an objective measure of inequality irrespective of prevalence while WI is a combined measure of inequality and the average distribution of an indicator that puts more weight on the poor. Results The results suggest that wealth-based inequalities decreased significantly at the national level. For ID, both indices showed a decline in both HPS and LPS though the change in WI in HPS was insignificant. For ANC, there was a significant decrease in inequality using both indices in HPS but not in LPS. For PNC, there was a significant decrease in inequality using both indices in HPS, and when using WI in LPS, but not when using EI in LPS. Conclusion Overall, the first decade of India's CCT programs saw an impressive reduction in EI for ID but less so for WI suggesting that the benefit of CCTs did not go disproportionately to the poor, which suggests that there is a need to reduce or eliminate the evident leakages. The improvement in uptake and inequality in ANC and PNC was not at par with ID, stressing the need to place greater focus on the continuum of care. The urban rural difference in HPS versus LPS in the changes in inequality reveals that infrastructure is important for CCTs to be more effective.Item Exposure to indoor air pollution and the cognitive functioning of elderly rural women: a cross-sectional study using LASI data, India(BMC Public Health, 2022) Manoj Dakua; Ranjan Karmakar; Papai BarmanFindings revealed that Indoor Air Pollution from solid fuels could significantly affect the cognitive health of elderly rural women in India, indicating the need for immediate intervention efforts to reduce the use of solid fuels, Indoor Air Pollution, and associated health problems.Item Temporal change in prevalence of BMI categories in India: patterns across States and Union territories of India, 1999�21(BMC Public Health, 2024) Meekang Sung; Akhil Kumar; Raman Mishra; Bharati Kulkarni; Rockli Kim; S. V. SubramanianThe problem of overweight/obesity often coexists with the burden of undernutrition in most low- and middle-income countries. BMI change in India incorporating the most recent trends has been under-researched. This repeated cross-sectional study of 1,477,885 adults in India analyzed the prevalence of different categories of BMI among adults (age 20�) in 4 rounds of National Family Health Surveys (1998�99, 2005�06, 2015�16, and 2019�21) for 36 states/UTs.Item Do health education initiatives assist socioeconomically disadvantaged populations? A systematic review and meta-analyses(BMC Public Health, 2023) Karran, E. L.; Grant, A. R.; Lee, H.; Kamper, S. J.; Williams, C. M.; Wiles, L. K.; Shala, R.; Poddar, C. V.; Astill, T.; Moseley, G. L.Health education interventions are considered critical for the prevention and management of conditions of public health concern.Item Gender-specific inequalities in coverage of Publicly Funded Health Insurance Schemes in Southern States of India: evidence from National Family Health Surveys(BMC Public Health, 2023) Santosh Kumar Sharma; Devaki Nambiar; Hari Sankar; Jaison Joseph; Surya Surendran; Gloria BennyThe study found gender inequalities in self-reported enrolment in southern states with long-standing Publicly Funded Health Insurance Schemes. Religion and caste-based inequalities, while reducing, were still prevalent among women.