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Continuum of maternal health care services and its impact on child immunization in India: an application of the propensity score matching approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2020

Mohd Usman Open the ORCID record for Mohd Usman [Opens in a new window] ,
Enu Anand Open the ORCID record for Enu Anand [Opens in a new window] ,
Laeek Siddiqui  and
Sayeed Unisa
Mohd Usman
Affiliation:
International Institute for Population Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai, India
Enu Anand*
Affiliation:
International Institute for Population Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai, India
Laeek Siddiqui
Affiliation:
International Institute for Population Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai, India
Sayeed Unisa
Affiliation:
International Institute for Population Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai, India
*
*Corresponding author. Email: enuanand@hotmail.com
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Abstract

Continuum of care throughout pregnancy, delivery and post-delivery has proved to be a critical health intervention for improving the health of mothers and their newborn children. Using data from the fourth wave of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) conducted in 2015–16, this study examined the correlates of utilization of maternal health care services and child immunization following the continuum of care approach in India. The study also assessed whether the continuity in utilizing maternal health care services affects the immunization of children. A total of 33,422 survey women aged 15–49 were included in the analysis of maternal health care indicators, and 8246 children aged 12–23 months for the analysis of child immunization. The results indicated that about 19% of the women had completed the maternal health continuum, i.e. received full antenatal care, had an institutional delivery and received postnatal care. Women with a higher level of education and of higher economic status were more likely to have complete continuum of care. Continuity of maternal health care was found to be associated with an increase in the immunization level of children. It was observed that 76% of the children whose mothers had complete continuum of care were fully immunized. Furthermore, the results from propensity score matching revealed that if mothers received continuum of care, the chance of their child being fully immunized increased by 17 percentage points. The results suggest that promotion of the continuum of maternal health care approach could help reduce not only the burden of maternal deaths in India, but also that of child deaths by increasing the immunization level of children.

Keywords

Maternal and child healthContinuum of careChild immunization
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 53 , Issue 5 , September 2021 , pp. 643 - 662
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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