BACKGROUND Cesarean delivery accounts for nearly one-third of all births in the U.S. and contributes to an additional $38 billion in healthcare costs each year. Although Cesarean delivery has a long record of improving maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity, increased utilization over time has yielded public health concerns and calls for reductions. Observational evidence suggests Cesare...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether overweight or obesity among children (aged 2 to ≤5 years) is associated with direct healthcare costs, after adjusting for child, household, and socioeconomic characteristics. METHODS A longitudinal cohort analysis was performed in 350 children aged 2 years assessed over 3 years of follow-up. Child weight status was determined from mean BMI z-scores at 2, 3.5, an...

BACKGROUND Although the urban health issue has been of long-standing interest to public health researchers, majority of the studies have looked upon the urban poor and migrants as distinct subgroups. Another concern is, whether being poor and at the same time migrant leads to a double disadvantage in the utilization of maternal health services? This study aims to examine the trends and factors ...

Background and Introduction: Emigration of healthcare workers from developing countries is on the rise and there is an urgent need for policies that increase access to and continuity of healthcare. In this commentary, we highlight some of the negative impacts of emigration on maternal and child health and discuss whether team-based healthcare delivery could possibly mitigate the shortfall of ma...

Introduction With a high maternal mortality ratio (of 212 per 100000 live births), provision of quality maternal healthcare services has remained a challenge in India. In 2005, government of India launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to improve healthcare services and health status of population in rural India with a focus on maternal and child health. In this paper we compared fin...

This study, a secondary analysis of data from Afghanistan Health Survey 2012, aimed to identify factors affecting maternal healthcare utilization in Afghanistan. Subjects were 5,662 women aged 15-49 years who had had one delivery in the two years preceding the survey. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were estimated by logistic regression analysis. The study found that 54.0% of m...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES This paper focuses on the inadequate attention on women's non-maternal healthcare in low- and middle-income countries. The study assessed the purchase of and financial access to non-maternal healthcare. It also scoped for mainstreaming household financial resources in this regard to suggest for alternatives. METHODS A household survey through multi-stage stratified s...

OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA SYNDROME (OSAS) IS A COMMON DISORDER RESULTING FROM REPETITIVE CESSATION OF BREATHING DURING SLEEP. OSAS affects approximately 5% of adults,1 but this figure may underestimate the problem because of the increasing worldwide prevalence of obesity.2 Men with OSAS have been reported to use more healthcare resources than matched controls, and treatment with continuous positi...

BACKGROUND Disparity in utilization of reproductive healthcare services between the urban poor and the urban non-poor households in the developing nations is well known. However, disparity may also exist within urban poor households. Our objective was to document the extent of disparity in reproductive healthcare utilization among the urban poor and to identify the socio-demographic determinant...

OBJECTIVES While active surveillance for adverse drug events using electronic medical records (EMRs) and claims data is expanding, these data do not fully capture patient experiences with medication-related symptoms. Our objective was to describe adherence and outcomes associated with an automated pharmacovigilance call. STUDY DESIGN/METHODS Prospective cohort of patients receiving a prescrip...