BackgroundEfforts to reduce neonatal mortality are essential if the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 is to be met. The impact of spatial dimensions of neonatal survival has not been thoroughly investigated even though access to good quality delivery care is considered to be one of the main priorities when trying to reduce neonatal mortality. This study examined the association between distance from the mother's home to the closest health facility and neonatal mortality, and investigated the influence of distance on patterns of perinatal health care utilisation.MethodsA surveillance system of live births and neonatal deaths was set up in eight districts of Quang Ninh province, Vietnam, from July 2008 to December 2009. Case referent design including all neonatal deaths and randomly selected newborn referents from the same population. Interviews were performed with mothers of all subjects and GIS coordinates for mothers' homes and all health facilities in the study area were obtained. Straight-line distances were calculated using ArcGIS software.ResultsA total of 197 neonatal deaths and 11 708 births were registered and 686 referents selected. Health care utilisation prior to and at delivery varied with distance to the health facility. Mothers living farthest away (4th and 5th quintile, ≥1257 meters) from a health facility had an increased risk of neonatal mortality (OR 1.96, 95% CI 1.40 - 2.75, adjusted for maternal age at delivery and marital status). When stratified for socio-economic factors there was an increased risk for neonatal mortality for mothers with low education and from poor households who lived farther away from a health facility. Mothers who delivered at home had more than twice as long to a health facility compared to mothers who delivered at a health care facility. There was no difference in age at death when comparing neonates born at home or health facility deliveries (p = 0.56).ConclusionDistance to the closest health facility was negatively associated with neonatal mortality risk. Health care utilisation in the prenatal period could partly explain this risk elevation since there was a distance decay in health system usage prior to and at delivery. The geographical dimension must be taken into consideration when planning interventions for improved neonatal survival, especially when targeting socio-economically disadvantaged groups.
Most countries have implemented restrictions on mobility to prevent the spread of Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), entailing considerable societal costs but, at least initially, based on limited evidence of effectiveness. We asked whether mobility restrictions were associated with changes in the occurrence of COVID-19 in 34 OECD countries plus Singapore and Taiwan. Our data sources were the Google Global Mobility Data Source, which reports different types of mobility, and COVID-19 cases retrieved from the dataset curated by Our World in Data. Beginning at each country’s 100th case, and incorporating a 14-day lag to account for the delay between exposure and illness, we examined the association between changes in mobility (with January 3 to February 6, 2020 as baseline) and the ratio of the number of newly confirmed cases on a given day to the total number of cases over the past 14 days from the index day (the potentially infective ‘pool’ in that population), per million population, using LOESS regression and logit regression. In two-thirds of examined countries, reductions of up to 40% in commuting mobility (to workplaces, transit stations, retailers, and recreation) were associated with decreased cases, especially early in the pandemic. Once both mobility and incidence had been brought down, further restrictions provided little additional benefit. These findings point to the importance of acting early and decisively in a pandemic.
Background: Child vaccination coverage in low-and middle-income countries is still far from complete, mainly among marginalized people such as children with illiterate mothers. Objective: This study aims to examine the association between maternal literacy and immunization status of children in Ethiopia and southeastern India (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) and test whether state-run health centers and community health workers moderate that association. Methods: This study is based on cross-sectional data from samples of children in Ethiopia and India, collected as part of round 2 within the Young Lives study (2006). Multilevel logistic regression was conducted to estimate the association between maternal literacy and the completion of four kinds of child vaccinations. We further tested for cross-level interactions between state-run health centers or community health workers and maternal literacy. Estimates were adjusted for several individual-and household-level demographic and socioeconomic factors. Results: Literate mothers were more likely to complete all four kinds of vaccinations for their children compared to illiterate mothers in Ethiopia (Odds Ratio (OR)=4.84, Confidence Interval (CI)=1.75-13.36). Presence of a health center was positively associated with completed vaccinations in India only (OR = 6.60, CI = 1.57-27.70). A cross-level interaction between community health workers and maternal literacy on the vaccination completion status of children was significant in Ethiopia only (OR = 0.29, CI = 0.09-0.96). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that increased availability of community health workers may reduce the child vaccination gap for illiterate mothers, depending on the country context.
Health financing has been considered as an important building block of a health system and has a key role in promoting universal health coverage in the Vietnam. This paper aims to describe the pattern of health expenditure, including total health expenditure and composition of health expenditure, over the last two decades in Vietnam. The paper mainly uses the data from Vietnam National Health Account and Vietnam Living Standards Survey. We also included data from other relevant published literature, reports and statistics about health care expenditure in Vietnam. The per capita health expenditure in Vietnam increased from US$ 14 in 1995 to US$ 86 in 2012. The total health expenditure as a share of GDP also rose from 5.2% in 1995 to 6.9% in 2012. Public health expenditure as percentage of government expenditure rose from 7.4% in 1995 to nearly 10% in 2012. The coverage of health insurance went up from 10% in 1995 to 68.5% in 2012. However, health financing in Vietnam was depending on private expenditures (57.4% in 2012). As a result, the proportion of households with catastrophic expenditure in 2012 was 4.2%. The rate of impoverishment in 2012 was 2.5%. To ensure equity and efficient goal of health system, policy actions for containing the health care out-of-pocket payments and their poverty impacts are urgently needed in Vietnam.
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