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Introduction: India has a plurality of health care with different systems of medicine delivered by government and local bodies in hospitals and clinics. Public hospitals provide 60% of all hospitalizations, while the private sector provides 75% of all routine care. Utilization is the actual attendance by the members of the public at health care facilities, which measures the number of visits per year or the number of people with at least one visit during the previous year, serves as an important tool and acts as a guiding path in understanding disease profile and also helps resource allocation. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was done using the National Pathfinder survey (stratified cluster random sampling) to know the health care utilization, profile, and pattern in Tenali Mandal, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. Results: The study sample comprised of 1,500 subjects who were equally divided among 5 age groups. Out of 1,500 participants, 52.8% were females and 47.2% were males. In total, 71.7% of the study participants have utilized health services, with majority of them (44.5%) had availed services within the last 6 months with prime reason of fevers (15.8%), while the main barrier for not seeking care was distance (17.03%), almost an equal proportion of the population sought care for their problems through home remedies and over-the-counter. Conclusion: There is an utmost need to minimize barriers of utilizing by making them aware of the health problems, so that they develop a positive attitude toward health care utilization. Therefore, knowledge of utilization of health services and associated factors is important in planning and delivery of interventions by the primary care physicians to improve health services coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The knowledge of morbidity pattern at primary healthcare level plays a key role to plan resources for a community efficiently. Poor living conditions in slums along with the effect of urbanisation makes them peculiar to study. Aim: To study the morbidity pattern of patients who attended a primary healthcare facility in an urban slum of Chandigarh, India. Materials and Methods: Secondary data analysis of outpatients of a primary healthcare facility in a slum area of Chandigarh, India was done. The sample size of the study was 16,483 morbidity for the year 2016. Diseases were categorised according to organ system of the body. Descriptive statistics were used to present the results. Pearson's Chi-square test was used to determine the difference between proportions. Results: In this study, a total of 14,153 patients who suffered from 16,483 total morbidity attended the outpatient department of urban primary care facility. Most common morbidity reported was due to respiratory diseases (6214,37.7%) followed by gastrointestinal (2056,12.5%) and cardiovascular diseases (1253,7.6%). Total morbidity of females (62.2%) was higher than males. Proportion of morbidity was higher in females, except injury, which was predominant in males. In reproductive and urinary tract infections, nutritional disorders, musculoskeletal and cardiovascular diseases groups, morbidity in females constituted more than 80% of total in each group. Communicable Diseases (CDs) constituted approximately two-third of the morbidity while Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) contributed one-fifth of the disease burden. Seasonal pattern of morbidity showed higher cases in the months of July to October with a peak in September. Conclusion: Predominantly, slum dwellers are still facing burden of CD. Morbidity pattern at a primary care level facility is a valuable tool for program managers and policy makers to plan services at grass root level in fast growing urban areas in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Emergency Neonatal Care (EmNC) is an important service for the health and survival of newborns. The objective of our study was to assess the availability of emergency neonatal care services in the north-eastern region of Karnataka state in India.Methods: We undertook a cross-sectional epidemiologic study in the year 2010. We assessed the provision of eight life-saving 'signal functions' (Comprehensive EmNC) or at least five 'signal functions' (Basic EmNC) by self-reporting through a structured questionnaire, coupled with verification by direct observation for presence of drugs and equipment in the prior three months. The assessment was undertaken in 443 government and 422 private healthcare facilities of eight districts of Karnataka.Results: There was an average of 3.6 EmNC facilities available per 500,000 population for the entire region. Only three out of eight districts and 10 of 42 sub-districts in the region had the recommended [greater than or equal to 5] EmNC facilities per 500,000. Further, over 95 % of CEmNC facilities and 88 % of BEmNC facilities were within the private sector. About 80 % of government hospitals at district and sub-district levels did not have EmNC capability.Conclusions: This study demonstrates the feasibility of using a simple assessment tool to measure health facility availability of life-saving services for newborn care. EmNC availability was seen to be suboptimal at the regional, district and sub-district levels within the northern part of Karnataka state. There is a need to improve availability of emergency newborn care in health facilities, with special emphasis on equity at population level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The interrelation between health and academic performance is well established. Academic institutions have a larger mandate, beyond academic instruction alone. The objective is to contribute holistically to student development through various paradigms, ultimately culminating in student success. To meet the global challenges of a changing educational system, educational institutions today are therefore vying to be Centers of Excellence, aiming to develop the overall personality of the student. Fundamental to this ideology and with student success as the common denominator, student Wellness assumes critical significance. Higher education institutions, especially universities offer varying levels of healthcare services. Health Promoting University (HPU) projects have therefore been implemented in the West. Unlike in the West, the concept of a Health Promoting University is nascent in India. Methods: A total of 1071 responses to a structured questionnaire administered to the students were studied. Results: In general, there appears to be a lack of awareness regarding the importance of addressing student healthcare issues. Consequently, the spectrum of healthcare services provided is varied and scattered. This encompasses infrastructure, manpower, resource allocation etc. Conclusions: The collective responses obtained could provide the basis for a policy formulation. The policy formulation in turn could be the basis of a national consensus for health care delivery systems operational at higher educational institutions in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To assess the magnitude of socio-economic disparities in health system responsiveness in India after correcting for potential reporting heterogeneity by socio-economic characteristics (education and wealth).Methods Data from Wave 1 of the Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (2007–2008) involving six Indian states were used. Seven health system responsiveness domains were considered for a respondent’s last visit to an outpatient service in 12 months: prompt attention, dignity, clarity of information, autonomy, confidentiality, choice and quality of basic amenities. Hierarchical ordered probit models (correcting for reporting heterogeneity through anchoring vignettes) were used to assess the association of socio-economic characteristics with the seven responsiveness domains, controlling for age, gender and area of residence. Stratified analysis was also conducted among users of public and private health facilities.Results Our statistical models accounting for reporting heterogeneity revealed socio-economic disparities in all health system responsiveness domains. Estimates suggested that individuals from the lowest wealth group, for example, were less likely than individuals from the highest wealth group to report ‘very good’ on the dignity domain by 8% points (10% vs 18%). Stratified analysis showed that such disparities existed among users of both public and private health facilities.Conclusion Socio-economic disparities exist in health system responsiveness in India, irrespective of the type of health facility used. Policy efforts to monitor and improve these disparities are required at the health system level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]