PUBLICATIONS
World Health Day 2014: Preventing vector-borne diseases
World Health Day 2014 brought to focus the increasing risk of vector borne diseases all around the world. More than one billion people get infected every year and more than a million die due to vector borne diseases. Though many scientific advances have been made to control vectors and to prevent insect bites, a lot still remains to be done. With the slogan, “Small bite, big threat”, the World Health Organization calls out for a strong political commitment and improved vector control tools to combat vector borne diseases.
Perceptions of State Government stakeholders & researchers regarding public health research priorities in India: An exploratory survey
Public health research has several stakeholders that should be involved in identifying public health research agenda. A survey was conducted prior to a national consultation organized by the Department of Health Research with the objective to identify the key public health research priorities as perceived by the State health officials and public health researchers. A cross-sectional survey was done for the State health officials involved in public health programmes and public health researchers in various States of India.
Early Hospital Mortality among Adult Trauma Patients Significantly Declined between 1998-2011: Three Single-Centre Cohorts from Mumbai, India
Trauma contributes to a major share of the deaths occurring worldwide. While systematic maintenance of trauma registers in the high income countries have enabled innovative research, research in low and middle income countries are lacking. This study uses the International Classification of Diseases-derived Injury Severity Score (ICISS) and risk adjustment to find a reduction in early hospital mortality among patients with major trauma between 1998 and 2011.
Economic Analysis of Delivering Primary Health Care Services through Community Health Workers
The study undertakes an economic costing of health services delivered by CHWs, from a health system perspective, by collecting data on resources spent in 50 randomly selected sub-centres selected from 4 districts. It assesses overall annual and unit cost of delivering package of services and specific services at sub-centre level by CHWs and found the Government of India’s policy of introducing a second auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) at the sub-centre compared to scenario of single ANM sub-centre to be very cost-effective.
Cost and Efficiency Evaluation of Referral Transport Model
This study, conducted to analyze the cost and efficiency of a publicly financed and managed referral transport service model in three districts of Haryana State found that the referral transport services were operating at an efficient level. The efficiency could be increased by increasing the demand for referral transport among the target population.
Health systems performance assessment in low-income countries: learning from international experiences
Health systems performance assessment in low-income countries: learning from international experiences Christine Kirunga Tashobya et al Globalization and Health 2014 Background The study aimed at developing a set of attributes for a 'good' health system performance...
Dominance of Sterilization and Alternative Choices of Contraception in India: An Appraisal of the Socioeconomic Impact
This study uses data drawn from the 2005-06 NFHS on a sample of women who reported using a method of contraception in the five years preceding the survey to estimate the impact of socioeconomic factors on the choice of contraception. Religious affiliation, women’s education and occupation were all found to have some impact on the choice of contraception. However, the most important factor associated with the continued use of permanent birth control methods over more modern ones was found to the socioeconomic status of the women.
The Effect of Surveillance and Appreciative Inquiry on Puerperal Infections: A Longitudinal Cohort Study in India
The Effect of Surveillance and Appreciative Inquiry on Puerperal Infections: A Longitudinal Cohort Study in India Julia Hussein et al Plos One, 2013 Abstract Objective To evaluate the effects of an intervention comprising surveillance and an organisational change...
Delays in diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in India: a systematic review
A systematic review looking into delays in the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis patients found three types of delays, namely patient delay, diagnostic delay and treatment delay. The study provides areas which require particular attention and where newer strategies should be targeted in order to improve TB control services in the country,
Morbidity Patterns and Health Care Seeking Behavior among Older Widows in India
This study conducted using data from the latest 60th round of National Sample Survey (NSS), 2004 found that the overall morbidity prevalence was 13% greater among older widows compared to older widowers. The likelihood of seeking health care services for reported morbidities too was substantially lower among older widows. The findings of this study are important to support policy makers and health care providers in identifying individuals ‘at risk’ and could be integrated into the current programs of social, economic and health security for the older persons.