BACKGROUND Previous studies have highlighted a range of individual determinants associated with HIV testing but few have assessed the role of contextual factors. The objective of this paper is to examine the influence of both individual and community-level determinants of HIV testing uptake in Burkina Faso. METHODS Using nationally representative cross-sectional data from the 2010 Demographic...

Environmental conditions in early life are known to have impacts on later health outcomes, but causal mechanisms and potential remedies have been difficult to discern. This paper uses the Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys of 2006 and 2011, combined with earlier NASA satellite observations of variation in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) at each child's location and time of b...

Background Low birth weight (LBW) infants constitute a vulnerable subset of infants with impaired immunity in early life. In India, there is scarcity of studies that focus on immunization practices in such infants. This analysis aimed to examine immunization practices in LBW infants with the intention to identify areas requiring intervention. Methods Data on immunization status of LBW infants...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether an expansion in private sector contraceptive supply is associated with increased socio-economic inequality in the modern contraceptive prevalence rate (MCPR inequality). METHODS Multiple rounds of Demographic and Health Surveys data were analysed for five countries that experienced an increase in the private sector supply of contraceptives: Morocco, Indonesia, K...

Understanding care-seeking practices and barriers to prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV is necessary in designing effective programmes to address the high disease burden due to HIV/AIDS in Uganda. This study explored perceptions, care-seeking practices and barriers to PMTCT among young and HIV-positive women. A household survey (10,706 women aged 14-49 years), twelve focu...

It is well known that if costlessly enforceable contracts regulate all of the actions of economic actors that a ect the well being of others, competitive equilibria are Pareto e cient regardless of the distribution of wealth. However where actions such as risk taking and hard work are not subject to such contracts, the assignment of residual claimancy over income streams and control over assets...

BACKGROUND The coverage of breast and cervical cancer screening has only slightly increased in the past decade in Thailand, and these cancers remain leading causes of death among women. This study identified socioeconomic and contextual factors contributing to the variation in screening uptake and coverage. MATERIALS AND METHODS Secondary data from two nationally representative household surv...