Equity in maternal and child health in Thailand

Limwattananon, Supon; Tangcharoensathien, Viroj; Prakongsai, Phusit

doi:10.2471/blt.09.068791

Cited by 81 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…30,31 Thailand, on the other hand, has managed to close the equity gap in the provision of maternal care by adopting pro-poor policies and universal health coverage. 32,33 In Viet Nam, maternal health care utilization between urban and rural areas shows striking differences. Large inequities exist along socioeconomic and ethnic lines.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal health care utilization in Viet Nam: increasing ethnic inequity

Målqvist

Lincetto²,

Du³

et al. 2013

Bull. World Health Organ.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal health care utilization in Viet Nam: increasing ethnic inequity

Målqvist

Lincetto²,

Du³

et al. 2013

Bull. World Health Organ.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…A large amount of the previous literature on child health equity in developing countries has focused on coverage of interventions in the health sector of selected countries such as Brazil, Vietnam, China, Thailand, and Tanzania [6–10]. These studies provided firm evidence that socioeconomic status is an essential factor associated with child health.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing levels and trends of child health inequality in 88 developing countries: from 2000 to 2014

Subramanian

et al. 2017

Global Health Action

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Reducing child mortality was one of the Millennium Development Goals. In the current Sustainable Development Goals era, achieving equity is prioritized as a major aim. Objective: This study aims to provide a comprehensive and updated picture of inequalities in child health intervention coverage and child health outcomes by wealth status, as well as their trends between 2000 and 2014. Methods: Using data from Demographic Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, we adopted three measures of inequality, including one absolute inequality indicator and two relative inequality indicators, to estimate the level and trends of inequalities in three child health outcome variables and 17 intervention coverages in 88 developing countries. Results: While improvements in child health outcomes and coverage of interventions have been observed between 2000 and 2014, large inequalities remain. There was a high level of variation between countries’ progress toward reducing child health inequalities, with some countries significantly improving, some deteriorating, and some remaining statistically unchanged. Among child health interventions, the least equitable one was access to improved sanitation (The absolute difference in coverages between the richest quintile and the poorest quintile reached 49.5% [42.7, 56.2]), followed by access to improved water (34.1% [29.5, 38.6]), and skilled birth attendant (SBA) (34.1% [28.8, 39.4]). The most equitable intervention coverage was insecticide-treated bed net for children (1.0% [−3.9, 5.9]), followed by oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea ((8.0% [5.2, 10.8]), and vitamin A supplement (8.4% [5.1, 11.7]). These findings were robust to various inequality measurements. Conclusions: Although child health outcomes and coverage of interventions have improved largely over the study period for almost all wealth quintiles, insufficient progress was made in reducing child health inequalities between the poorest and richest wealth quintiles. Future efforts should focus on reaching the poorest children by increasing investments toward expanding the coverage of interventions in resource-limited settings.

show abstract

“…It lies in the range of −1 to +1, with a negative (positive) value indicating the EMS needs related death rate and utilisation are concentrated among the poor (rich) areas. A CI of zero indicates that there is equity among areas [26][27][28]. The greater the absolute value of CI, the greater the degree of inequality, which means the worse off for the disadvantaged groups of people.…”

Section: Equity Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the equity of emergency medical services: a cross-sectional survey in Chongqing city

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Due to reform of the economic system and the even distribution of available wealth, emergency medical services (EMS) experienced greater risks in equity. This study aimed to assess the equity of EMS needs, utilisation, and distribution of related resources, and to provide evidence for policy-makers to improve such services in Chongqing city, China. Methods: Five emergency needs variables (mortality rate of maternal, neonatal, cerebrovascular, cardiovascular, injury and poisoning) from the death surveillance, and two utilisation variables (emergency room visits and rate of utilisation) were collected from Chongqing Health Statistical Year Book 2008 to 2012. We used a concentration index (CI) to assess equality in the distribution of needs and utilisation among three areas with different per-head gross domestic product (GDP). In each area, we randomly chose two districts as sample areas and selected all the medical institutions with emergency services as subjects. We used the Gini coefficient (G) to measure equity in population and geographic distribution of facilities and human resources related EMS. Results: Maternal-caused (CI: range −0.213 to −0.096) and neonatal-caused (CI: range −0.161 to −0.046)deaths declined in 2008-12, which focusing mainly on the less developed area. The maternal deaths were less equitably distributed than neonatal, and the gaps between areas gradually become more noticeable. For cerebrovascular (CI: range 0.106 to 0.455), cardiovascular (CI: range 0.101 to 0.329), injury and poisoning (CI: range 0.001 to 0.301) deaths, we documented a steady improvement of mortality; the overall equity of these mortalities was lower than those of maternal and neonatal mortalities, but distinct decreases were seen over time. The patients in developed area were more likely to use EMS (CI: range 0.296 to 0.423) than those in less developed area, and the CI increased over the 5-year period, suggesting that gaps in equity were increasing. The population distribution of facilities, physicians and nurses (G: range 0.2 to 0.3) was relatively equitable; the geographic distribution (G: range 0.4 to 0.5) showed a big gap between areas. Conclusions: In Chongqing city, equity of needs, utilization, and resources allocation of EMS is low, and the provision of such services has not met the needs of patients. To narrow the gap of equity, improvement in the capability of EMS to decrease cerebrovascular, cardiovascular, injury and poisoning cases, should be regarded as a top priority. In poor areas, allocation of facilities and human resources needs to be improved, and the economy should also be enhanced.

show abstract

Equity in maternal and child health in Thailand

Cited by 81 publications

References 14 publications

Maternal health care utilization in Viet Nam: increasing ethnic inequity

Maternal health care utilization in Viet Nam: increasing ethnic inequity

Assessing levels and trends of child health inequality in 88 developing countries: from 2000 to 2014

Analysis of the equity of emergency medical services: a cross-sectional survey in Chongqing city

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About