Gender Based Within-Household Inequality in Childhood Immunization in India: Changes over Time and across Regions

Background and Objectives: Despite India’s substantial economic growth in the past two decades, girls in India are discriminated against in access to preventive healthcare including immunizations. Surprisingly, no study has assessed the contribution of gender based within-household discrimination to the overall inequality in immunization status of Indian children. This study therefore has two objectives: to estimate the gender based within-household inequality (GWHI) in immunization status of Indian children and to examine the inter-regional and inter-temporal variations in the GWHI. Data and Methods: The present study used households with a pair of male-female siblings (aged 1–5 years) from two rounds of National Family Health Survey (NFHS, 1992–93 and 2005–06). The overall inequality in the immunization status (after controlling for age and birth order) of children was decomposed into within-households and between-households components using Mean log deviation to obtain the GWHI component. The analysis was conducted at the all-India level as well as for six specified geographical regions and at two time points (1992–93 and 2005–06). Household fixed-effects models for immunization status of children were also estimated. Results and Conclusions: Findings from household fixed effects analysis indicated that the immunization scores of girls were significantly lower than that of boys. The inequality decompositions revealed that, at the all-India level, the absolute level of GWHI in immunization status decreased from 0.035 in 1992–93 to 0.023 in 2005–06. However, as a percentage o

Health status, trends, and issues in Sri Lanka

The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com Copyright © 2007 The AuthorsIt is widely recognized that better health is a prerequisite for the overall economic and social development of a nation. Sri Lanka, like many other countries experiencing the epidemiological transition, will have to make effective decisions on health-care service management and the development of education and training programs for health-care professionals. This paper provides a comprehensive review of current health service administration, health status, trends and issues, and health financing and resource allocation in Sri Lanka. The review revealed that Sri Lanka has achieved a relatively high health status given a low level of spending on its health-care services; however, Sri Lanka still experiences vital health problems in all stages of the life cycle, mainly related to lifestyle and the epidemiological transition associated with widespread societal and economic crises.Rasika S. Jayasekara and Tim Schult

Levels of urbanization in the world's countries: Testing consistency of estimates based on national definitions

10.1007/s12546-013-9109-xJournal of Population Research304291-30