India is a large country with each State having distinct social, cultural and economic characteristics. Tobacco epidemic is not uniform across the country. There are wide variations in tobacco consumption across age, sex, regions and socio-economic classes. This study was conducted to understand the wide inequalities in patterns of smoking and smokeless tobacco consumption across various States of India.
Income inequality is associated with poor health. Inequities exist in service utilization and financing for health care. Health care costs push high number of households into poverty in India. We undertook this study to ascertain inequities in health status, service utilization and out-ofpocket (OOP) health expenditures in two States in north India namely, Haryana and Punjab, and Union Territory of Chandigarh.
As high out-of-pocket healthcare expenses pose heavy financial burden on the families, Government of India is considering a variety of financing and delivery options to universalize health care services. Hence, an estimate of the cost of delivering universal health care services is needed.
Decline in malnutrition levels has been dismal since the 1990s. We ascertained decadal trend in childhood nutritional status between 1997 and 2007 in Chandigarh, India and assessed impact of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) on childhood undernutrition.
