No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Introduction: With a substantial increase in Institutional births in India, the prevalence of C-section section deliveries witnessed a sharp rise, with a highly skewed prevalence among births in private health facilities. The study aims to investigate the dynamics of voluntary C-section across different socio-cultural strata in India, along its major drivers. Methods: The study used data on 249,949 live births in the five years preceding 2015-16 NFHS-4 covering 699,686 women from 601,000 households across 640 districts in the country. Bivariate and binary logistic regression analysis have been used to analyses the data. The economic inequalities in voluntary C-section have been analyzed using the poor-rich ratio and the concentration index (CI) Results: Seventeen percent of live births in five years preceding NFHS-4 were delivered by C-section, a sharp rise from 9% in 2005-06. C-section deliveries are common among first births (24%), in private sector health facilities (41% of deliveries), higher educated mothers and those residing in urban areas (28%). The likelihood of Csection deliveries is significantly higher among mother from high-income families. Values of the poor-rich ratio (0.092) and concentration index (0.031) has significantly revealed that voluntary C-section is more concentrated among the affluent class of households in India. Conclusions:The study concludes that older women, higher educated mothers, residing in urban areas and, belonging to high socio-economic status are the ones who opt for voluntary C-section deliveries and seek private instructional delivery. The government of India should strengthen the regulatory protocol for private health facilities.

Background In India, there is currently a lack of data on socioeconomic inequalities in HIV testing on a national scale; thus, understanding socioeconomic inequalities in response to expanded HIV testing is critical for assessing and ensuring equity of HIV programmes in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals. The specific objective of the study was to determine the factor associated with HIV testing during antenatal care and assess the socio-economic inequalities in HIV testing during antenatal care (ANC) among Indian women aged 15–49 years with a live birth in the two years preceding the survey. Methods The results drawn from the state module of women data file of fourth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4, 2015–16), considering HIV testing during antenatal care among women aged 15–49 who gave live birth in the two years preceding the survey and received the result of HIV test as a matter of fact. Method, such as, descriptive statistics, binary ogistic regression, concentration index were used in the analysis. Results The findings of the study show that HIV testing during antenatal care was low (30%) among women in India. Our findings reveal that there were significant inequalities exist in HIV testing during ANC between richer and poorer quintile of women. Education, place of residence, comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS, and regular exposure of mass media were substantially contributing to socioeconomic inequality in HIV testing during ANC among women in India. Conclusions The socioeconomic inequities in HIV testing during pregnancy should be monitored and addressed in order to ensure an equitable distribution of the benefits specially among children and accomplishments of HIV programs in India.