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Women's employment outside the home in developing countries has been increasing steadily over last several decades leading to unprecedented changes in family organisation including decline in family size and extended/joint family structures, which have implications for childcare needs of working mothers. However, the inter-connections between these changes, i.e., women's work, childcare arrangements and wellbeing have remained rather unexplored in the developing world. This paper is an attempt in this direction and examines the childcare arrangements, preferences and the decision-making process of working mothers of children aged 0-36 months of age in India, a country undergoing rapid modernization, urbanization and accompanying social change.

AbstractInfants and children are the most vulnerable group for morbidity and mortality. Consequently, infant and child mortality has long been of interest to demographers. Unlike the causes of death for the elderly, a high proportion of the deaths of children under the age of five years in developing countries is believed to be preventable through fairly simple medical attention (Zheng, 1993). High infant and child mortality may present one of the greatest health problems in today's developing world, and research on the covariates of infant and child mortality, as well as mortality differentials in different socio-economic groups of a population, is particularly important for both social policy makers and health programme planners in developing countries.

""Discusses the role of women workers who are joining the workforce in the cityscape and bringing to surface the contradictions that this assumption offers"--Provided by publisher"--

ABSTRACTA number of studies have explored the relationship between socio-economic status and mortality, although these have mostly been based on the working-age population, despite the fact that the burden of mortality is highest in older people. Using Poisson regression on linked New Zealand census and mortality data (2001–04, 1.3 million person years) with a comprehensive set of socio-economic indicators (education, income, car access, housing tenure, neighourhood deprivation), we examined the association of socio-economic characteristics and older adult mortality (65+ years) in New Zealand. We found that socio-economic mortality gradients persist into old age. Substantial relative risks of mortality were observed for all socio-economic factors, except housing tenure. Most relative risk associations decreased in strength with ageing [e.g.most deprived compared to least deprived rate ratio for males reducing from 1.40 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.28–1.53) for 65–74-year-olds to 1.13 (CI 1.00–1.28) for 85 + -year-olds], except for income and education among women where the rate ratios changed little with increasing age. This suggests individual-level measures of socio-economic status are more closely related to mortality in older women than older men. Comparing across genders, the only statistically significantly different association between men and women was for a weaker association for women for car access.

This article examines gender differences in health status among older adults in Singapore using three measures of health status: self-reported health, the presence of chronic illness and functional disability. Most previous studies focus exclusively on women below retirement age, and are typically based on western data. Women report a higher prevalence of chronic conditions and disabilities compared to men, and assess their health more negatively than men. Less is known about gender differentials in health status among older adults in Asia. Results from multivariate logistic regressions show a significant reduction in gender differences in subjective health status when demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health risk behaviours and social support variables are controlled for in the models. Gender differences remain, however, in the probability of reporting a chronic illness and functional disability. The policy implications of these findings are discussed, including the negative effects of marriage on older women's health.

This study examines the health experiences of migrant female workers in the construction industry in North India by addressing the following four broad categories of issues: what do these women think about their health in general? Where do these women go for treatment when they are ill? What are their perceptions about the utilization of trained medical personnel or hospitals for childbirth? Does migration improve women's health and their utilization of health facilities and if yes, does duration of stay in an urban area matter? Based on focus group discussions (FGDs), the results suggest that while the health status of these women have improved after migration, they have not started using modern health facilities either for childbirth or general illnesses. The study recommends that in order to understand the impact of migration on migrant women working in the informal sector, we need to address the broader social environment within which their health behavior occurs. We also need to look at the geographical dimension of exposure to urban lifestyles and ideas besides exposure over time (i.e., whether longer or shorter duration of stay in urban areas) and age (i.e., whether they migrated at younger ages or older ages).

AbstractThis paper presents the development, testing, and spatial variation of an innovative India Health Index. Unlike previous approaches that focused on specific health aspects (e.g., health resources, child health, or health coverage), our index takes a comprehensive and multi-dimensional approach. It covers indicators across various life stages: child, adolescent, and adult. It encompasses six domains influencing health: socio-cultural factors, health status, health determinants (both risk and protective factors), household environment, and health system and policy. We used data from the latest round of the National Family Health Survey and employed Principal Component Analysis for constructing the India Health Index. Subsequent statistical tests confirmed its internal reliability and construct validity. External validity was indicated by its association with under-five mortality rates, and the sub-national human development index for India. Spatial analyses revealed significant inter-district and inter-state variation in India Health Index scores. The findings underscore the utility of the India Health Index as a measurement tool and its potential for tracking progress and policy intervention for improving health equity in India.

AbstractUsing data from multiple waves of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, and Cox regression model with time-varying covariates, this study investigates how Foreign-Born men and women from english speaking (ES) and non-english speaking (NES) countries differ in their trajectories in developing long-term disability relative to Native-Born Australians. The results indicate that the risk of developing long-term disability increased with duration of residence among men from both ES countries and NES countries and women from NES countries, starting with a health advantage when their duration of residence was less than or equal to 10 years. However, they all lost their initial health advantage after 10 years or more years of their stay in Australia. We also found a mediating role of socioeconomic factors and English language proficiency in developing long-term disability for immigrant men and women from ES countries and immigrant women from NES countries respectively.