Department of Economics, Akal University, Bathinda, Punjab, India.
School of Economics, Faculty of Management, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, India.
Health Soc Care Community. 2021 Nov;29(6):1948-1959. doi: 10.1111/hsc.13309. Epub 2021 Feb 9.
The utilisation of maternal healthcare services is a principal indicator to measure the success of any maternal and child health programme. Suboptimal utilisation of maternal healthcare services is a vexatious problem in Empowered Action Group (EAG) states of India. This study aims to examine the currents status and socioeconomic determinants of antenatal services, skilled birth attendance and post-natal services in four infamous EAG states of India. This study used nationally representative, National Family Health Survey (NFHS, 2015-16) data for analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to depict the current status of maternal healthcare services utilisation and a discrete choice model was applied to examine the associated factors across the selected EAG states. The utilisation of maternal health services was higher in Rajasthan followed by Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar respectively. Utilisation was consistently low among the socioeconomically disadvantaged women in all the selected EAG states. The study highlights that female education, mass media exposure, women's autonomy and economic status were significantly associated with the use of maternal healthcare services. The actualisation of our national and Sustainable Development Goals at the ground level is happening relatively slowly in the EAG states. Hence, achieving equitable distribution of resources, universal availability and access to information, counselling and reproductive services coupled with women empowerment are vital to the realisation of these goals.
孕产妇医疗保健服务的利用是衡量任何母婴健康计划成功的主要指标。孕产妇医疗保健服务利用不足是印度赋权行动小组（EAG）各州的一个棘手问题。本研究旨在探讨印度四个臭名昭著的 EAG 州的产前服务、熟练接生和产后服务的现状和社会经济决定因素。本研究使用了全国代表性的国家家庭健康调查（NFHS，2015-16）数据进行分析。描述性统计用于描述孕产妇医疗保健服务利用的现状，并应用离散选择模型来检查选定的 EAG 州的相关因素。孕产妇保健服务的利用在拉贾斯坦邦最高，其次是中央邦、北方邦和比哈尔邦。在所有选定的 EAG 州中，社会经济劣势妇女的利用一直很低。该研究强调，女性教育、大众媒体接触、妇女自主权和经济状况与孕产妇医疗保健服务的使用显著相关。在 EAG 州，国家和可持续发展目标在基层的实现相对缓慢。因此，实现资源的公平分配、普遍提供和获取信息、咨询和生殖服务以及赋予妇女权力对于实现这些目标至关重要。
