Associations between community health workers' home visits and education-based inequalities in institutional delivery and perinatal mortality in rural Uttar Pradesh, India: a cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

India's National Health Mission has trained community health workers called Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) to visit and counsel women before and after birth. Little is known about the extent to which exposure to ASHAs' home visits has reduced perinatal health inequalities as intended. This study aimed to examine whether ASHAs' third trimester home visits may have contributed to equitable improvements in institutional delivery and reductions in perinatal mortality rates (PMRs) between women with varying education levels in Uttar Pradesh (UP) state, India.

Methods

Cross-sectional survey data were collected from a representative sample of 52 615 women who gave birth in the preceding 2 months in rural areas of 25 districts of UP in 2014-2015. We analysed

SUBMITTER: Blanchard AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8276308 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature