Deaths during pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium: Exploring causes, context and evidence from Eastern India.

AIM: The study was aimed to identify the specific reasons and circumstances of maternal deaths in West Bengal. METHODS: The present study is a retrospective study of 317 maternal deaths, conducted between November 2013 and October 2015 at two major referral hospitals of eastern India, West Bengal. The frequencies, proportions, measures of central tendency and dispersion were used to describe the data. The data were analyzed using the statistical software spss version 20.0. ArcGIS 10.1 was also employed to show the distributional pattern of maternal deaths. RESULTS: The overall maternal mortality ratio was estimated as 561 per 100 000 live births. Eclampsia or hypertensive disorders of pregnancy contributed to one-third (33.1%, n = 105/317) of maternal deaths. The maternal deaths were more common (41%) among women belonging to the age group of 20-24 years and primiparous (36.9%) group. The average distance for traveling to reach the final hospital was 47.37 km. Approximately, three-fourths (72.2%) of maternal deaths were in the post-partum period. Half of the women (50.5%) sought medical care after 12 hrs of developing complications. The majority of the cases (80.1%) were referred and about 45% of patients had a cesarean section. CONCLUSION: The result suggests there was a shift in causes of maternal deaths from hemorrhage to eclampsia. Establishment of separate eclampsia units at lower-level health facilities may be a more plausible pathway to prevent eclampsia-related maternal deaths in West Bengal.

Informal Employment and High Burden of Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Payments among Older Workers: Evidence from Longitudinal Ageing Study in India.

India's economy is among the fastest growing in the world. However, a large share of informal workforce is a common characteristic of country's economy, comprises a significant portion of most of its labour markets. This workforce often receives low wages and lacks benefits such as strong social security and health coverage for all. The majority of healthcare spending in India is private. As India's population ages and the informal sector expands, it is expected that many of these workers will continue to work beyond the retirement age to bear their own healthcare costs due to lack of savings, pensions and the precarious nature of their employment. In this context, this study estimates the burden of Out-of-Pocket (OOP) payments on India's informal older workers compared to their formal counterparts, using data from the first wave of the nationally representative Longitudinal Ageing Study in India. According to estimates from the Two-part regression model, informal older workers pay, on an average, INR 1113 (p<0.01) and INR 55 (p<0.05) less than their formal counterparts for inpatient and outpatient care, respectively. However, probit regression models revealed that the burden of combined (both inpatient and outpatient) OOP payments exceeding (by 40%, 20%, and 10%) of their income is significantly higher among informal older workers compared to formal older workers. The study underscores the need for strengthening of universal health insurance schemes to ensure everyone has access to medical services without experiencing financial hardship. It also advocates for policies specifically tailored towards informal workers, considering their unique challenges with regard to livelihoods and healthcare security. In particular, this encompasses bolstering the existing social security and healthcare system, and related policies for ensuring financial security against OOP payments, especially for informal workers and all the population in general.

Informal sector employment and the health outcomes of older workers in India.

A large proportion of the older population in India constitutes an undeniable share of workforce after the retirement age. This stresses the need to understand the implications of working at older ages on health outcomes. The main objective of this study is to examine the variations in health outcomes by formal/informal sector of employment of older workers using the first wave of the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India. Using binary logistic regression models, the results of this study affirm that type of work does play a significant role in determining health outcomes even after controlling socio-economic, demographic, life-style behaviour, childhood health and work characteristics. The risk of Poor Cognitive Functioning (PCF) is high among informal workers, while formal workers suffer greatly from Chronic Health Conditions (CHC) and Functional Limitations (FL). Moreover, the risk of PCF and/or FL among formal workers increases with the increase in risk of CHC. Therefore, the present research study underscores the relevance of policies focusing on providing health and healthcare benefits by respective economic activity and socio-economic position of older workers.