Chowdhury AH, Hanifi SMA, Mia MN and Bhuiya A (2017) Socioeconomic inequalities in under-five mortality in rural Bangladesh: evidence from seven national surveys spreading over 20 years, International Journal for Equity in Health (2017) 16:197, DOI: 10.1186/s12939-017-0693-9
Socioeconomic inequality in health and mortality remains a disturbing reality across nations including Bangladesh. Inequality drew renewed attention globally. Bangladesh though made impressive progress in health, it makes an interesting case for learning. This paper examined the trends and changing pattern of socioeconomic inequalities in under-five mortality in rural Bangladesh. It also examined whether mother’s education had any effect in reducing socioeconomic inequalities.
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Iqbal M, Chowdhury AH, Mahmood SS, Mia MN, Hanifi SMA and Bhuiya A (2017) Socioeconomic and programmatic determinants of renewal of membership in a voluntary micro health insurance scheme: evidence from Chakaria, Bangladesh, Global Health Action, Vol 10, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1080/16549716.2017.1287398
Out-of-pocket (OOP) healthcare expenditure is a major obstacle for achieving universal health coverage in low-income countries including Bangladesh. Sixty-three percent of the USD 27 annual per-capita healthcare expenditure in Bangladesh comes from individuals’ pockets. Although health insurance is a financial tool for reducing OOP, use of such tools in Bangladesh has been limited to some small-scale voluntary micro health insurance (MHI) schemes run by non-governmental organizations (NGO). The MHI, however, can orient people on health insurance concept and provide learning for product development, implementation, barriers to enrolment, membership renewal, and other operational challenges and solutions. Keeping this in mind, icddr,b in 2012 initiated a pilot MHI, Amader Shasthya, in Chakaria, Bangladesh. This paper explores the determinants of membership renewal in this scheme, which is a perpetual challenge for MHI.
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Mia MN, Hanifi SMA, Rahman MS, et al (2017) Prevalence, pattern and sociodemographic differentials in smokeless tobacco consumption in Bangladesh: evidence from a population-based cross-sectional study in Chakaria, BMJ Open 2017;7, DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012765
The health hazards associated with the use of smokeless tobacco (SLT) are similar to those of smoking. However, unlike smoking, limited initiatives have been taken to control the use of SLT, despite its widespread use in South and Southeast Asian countries including Bangladesh. It is therefore important to examine the prevalence of SLT use and its social determinants for designing appropriate strategies and programmes to control its use.
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Das S, Mia MN, Hanifi SMA, Hoque S and Bhuiya A (2017) Health literacy in a community with low levels of education: findings from Chakaria, a rural area of Bangladesh, BMC Public Health, 17:203, DOI: 10.1186/s12889-017-4097-y
Health literacy (HL) helps individuals to make effective use of available health services. In low-income countries such as Bangladesh, the less than optimum use of services could be due to low levels of HL. Bangladesh’s health service delivery is pluralistic with a mix of public, private and informally trained healthcare providers. Emphasis on HL has been inadequate. Thus, it is important to assess the levels of HL and service utilization patterns. The findings from this study aim to bridge the knowledge gap.
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