Gender gap in parents' financing strategy for hospitalization of their children: evidence from India

Abstract

The 'missing women' dilemma in India has sparked great interest in investigating gender discrimination in the provision of health care in the country. No studies, however, have directly examined discrimination in health-care financing strategies in the case of severe illness of sons versus daughters. In this paper, we hypothesize that households who face tight budget constraints are more likely to spend their meager resources on hospitalization of boys rather than girls. We use the 60th round of the Indian National Sample Survey (2004) and a multinomial logit model to test this hypothesis and to throw some light on this important but overlooked issue. The results reveal that boys are much more likely to be hospitalized than girls. When it comes to financing, the gap in the usage of household income and savings is relatively small, while the gender gap in the probability of hospitalization and usage of more onerous financing strategies is very high. Ceteris paribus, the probability of boys to be hospitalized by financing from borrowing, sale of assets, help from friends, etc. is much higher than that of girls. Moreover, in line with our theoretical framework, the results indicate that the gender gap intensifies as we move from the richest to poorest households.

Gender Inequalities in Surgery for Bilateral Cataract among Children in Low-Income Countries

“…This is in contrast to a large-scale study in India that demonstrated a higher rate of hospitalization for boys than girls, with the gender difference being even more pronounced when money to pay for services had to be borrowed or assets had to be sold. 61 To date, there have been no studies of out-of-pocket expenditures incurred by parents of children undergoing cataract surgery, which, given the relatively high cost of providing cataract services for children, 62,63 are likely to be considerable in settings where fees for cataract surgery are higher than the fees adults are charged for cataract surgery. The overall explanation for the lower access to surgery by girls with bilateral cataract is likely to reflect a complex interplay of social, economic, and attitudinal factors, with poverty, low levels of maternal education, and cultural norms being key factors.…”

Maternal education is associated with reduced female disadvantages in under-five mortality in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia

“…A conscious gender bias in favour of boys with regard to nutrition and care is one possible mechanism. There is substantial evidence for the existence of such a bias in southern Asia, 5,10,31 but evidence is mixed for sub-Saharan Africa. 13,[32][33][34] More detailed analyses into the causes of the observed gender differences are needed before strong conclusions can be drawn.…”

How could differences in ‘control over destiny’ lead to socio-economic inequalities in health? A synthesis of theories and pathways in the living environment

“…Countries with entrenched cultural preferences for boys over girls ('son preference') include China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Bangladesh, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Algeria, Turkey and Tunisia. There is an indirect pathway from son preference to poorer health outcomes though reduced access to food and nutrition, education, employment and health care, which leads on to poorer nutrition, as part of a relative neglect of girl children, which cumulatively leads to poorer health outcomes (Asfaw et al 2010;Jayachandran andKuziemko, 2011, Osmani andSen, 2003). But a more direct pathway to higher death rates and lower survival chances has also been postulated: through mechanisms such as infanticide of girl babies, and -in recent decades when technologies have developed -the practice of sex selective abortion (Banister, 2004;Klasen and Wink, 2003).…”