BACKGROUND In Vietnam, four or more antenatal care (ANC4+) visits/services among pregnant women have not been officially reported in the health system. Moreover, the factors associated with the use of ANC4+ services have not been studied in previous studies. In this study, we conducted an exploratory analysis to identify the rate of utilization of ANC4+ services and factors associated with use ...

BACKGROUND The role of gender inequities in explaining women's access to reproductive health care was examined in four countries (two sub-Saharan African and two South Asian countries). The extent of gender inequities varies across and within countries, and is rooted in the different cultural practices and gender norms within these different countries, and differences in the status and autonomy...

Women's relative lack of decision-making power and their unequal access to employment, finances, education, basic health care, and other resources are considered to be the root causes of their ill-health and that of their children. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the interactive relation between women's empowerment and the use of maternal health care. Two model specifications are t...

Pregnancy among secondary school students remains a public health problem and is associated with school dropout as well as poor maternal and child health outcomes. Schools in South Africa no longer expel pregnant students as was the case before 2000. Instead, the government encourages them to remain in class to complete their education, but pregnant students often face stigma, and some drop out...

BACKGROUND This analysis examined factors associated with non-use of antenatal iron/folic acid supplements in Indonesia. METHODS Data from the 2002/2003 and 2007 Indonesia Demographic and Health Surveys (IDHS) were used, providing survival information for 26,591 most recent deliveries over the five-year period prior to each survey. The main outcome variable was non-use of iron/folic acid supp...

The paper investigates the effect of adequate use of prenatal care on birth weight in Kenya using data from the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey of 2008-2009 together with additional administrative data. Both a single-level model and a multi-level model are estimated. The estimation strategy controls for potential sample selection bias, potential endogeneity of prenatal care, and potential u...

BACKGROUND The concept of responsiveness, introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO), addresses non-clinical aspects of health service quality that are relevant regardless of provider, country, health system or health condition. Responsiveness refers to "aspects related to the way individuals are treated and the environment in which they are treated" during health system interactions. Th...

BACKGROUND Targeted campaigns have been reported to disrupt routine health services in low- and middle-income countries. The objective of this study was to evaluate the average effect of public health campaigns over 1 year on routine services such as antenatal care, routine vaccination and outpatient services. METHOD We collected daily activity data in 60 health facilities in two regions of C...

INTRODUCTION The drive toward universal health coverage (UHC) is central to the post 2015 agenda, and is incorporated as a target in the new Sustainable Development Goals. However, it is recognised that an equity dimension needs to be included when progress to this goal is monitored. WHO have developed a monitoring framework which proposes a target of 80% coverage for all populations regardless...