BACKGROUND Maternal healthcare utilization is a major determinant of maternal mortality. Bangladesh is experiencing a rapid pace of urbanization with all future growth in population expected to be in urban areas. Health care infrastructure is different in urban and rural areas thus warranting an examination of equity in use rates of maternal healthcare. This paper addresses whether the urban-ru...

BACKGROUND India aims to achieve universal access to institutional delivery. We undertook this study to estimate the universality of institutional delivery care for pregnant women in Haryana state in India. To assess the coverage of institutional delivery, we analyze service coverage (coverage of public sector institutional delivery), population coverage (coverage among different districts and ...

Stunting is associated with poor survival and development in children. Our analysis identifies the factors most significantly associated with child stunting in Bhutan using a nationally representative sample of 2085 children 0-23 months old. We find that 27.5% of children were stunted and almost half (42.6%) of the stunted children were severely stunted. Children's mean height-for-age z-score d...

BACKGROUND No studies have examined the effect of socioeconomic deprivation on antepartum and intrapartum stillbirths in the poorest women in low income countries. METHODOLOGY/ PRINCIPAL FINDINGS This study used data from a prospective population based surveillance system involving all women of childbearing age and their babies in rural Ghana. The primary objective was to evaluate association...

INTRODUCTION This study is against the backdrop that despite the forty-nine percent decline in Maternal Mortality Rate in Ghana, the situation still remains high averaging 319 per 100,000 live births between 2011 and 2015. OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between National Health Insurance and maternal healthcare utilisation across three main wealth quintiles (Poor, Middle and Rich). ME...

BACKGROUND Social franchising programs in low- and middle-income countries have tried using the standard wealth index, based on the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) questionnaire, in client exit interviews to assess clients' relative wealth compared with the national wealth distribution to ensure equity in service delivery. The large number of survey questions required to capture the wealth ...

A growing body of research has centered on the issue of the relationship between financial and environmental performance. The lack of consensus in this literature can be attributed to several factors. The cost of complying with environmental regulation can be significant and detrimental to shareholder wealth maximization. Conversely, a firm that can effectively control pollution might also be a...

This article examines the trends and pattern in socioeconomic inequality in stunting, underweight and wasting among children aged <3 years in urban India over a 14-year period. We use three successive rounds of the National Family Health Survey data conducted during 1992–93, 1998–99 and 2005–06. The selected socioeconomic predictors are household wealth and mother’s education level. We use prin...

OBJECTIVE To examine the change in equity of insecticide-treated net (ITN) ownership among 19 malaria-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa before and after the launch of the Cover The Bed Net Gap initiative. METHODS To assess change in equity in ownership of at least one ITN by households from different wealth quintiles, we used data from Demographic and Health Surveys and Malaria Indicato...