Background: India has achieved a substantial decline in its infant mortality rate from 110 to 47 deaths per 1000 in the last two decades. But, in 2011 there were still 1.7 million deaths in children under-5 in India, accounting for 24% of global under-5 child deaths. On the one hand, per-capita public spending on health has doubled during the same period, but out-of-pocket health expenditure still constitutes 70% of total health spending. In this context, the present study investigated the association between public health spending and infant and child mortality in India. Methods: In the study, data from the first, second, and third National Family Health Survey were used to create a birth cohort for the years 1980 to 2006 that provided individual death history. The mortality data for each individual were merged with yearly state health expenditure, income, fiscal deficit, and the Gini coefficient for the 27 years, 1980-2006. As health expenditure varies over time by state but not by individual, a state-level fixed effects model was adopted for probit estimation, along with a time fixed effect probit estimation to give the time varying effect. Findings: State-level fixed effect regression results show public spending on health has a marginal effect of -0.077 (SE 0.021) on infant mortality and -0.126 (0.025) on under-5 mortality. Marginal effects of per-capita income and its distribution are statistically insignificant in a state-level fixed model, but they become significant in a time fixed model. Mother's education and age at the birth of the child are significant determinants of infant and under-5 mortality in both of the specified models. Interpretation: Even though overall public health expenditure has a marginal effect, its effect is greater on under-5 mortality than on infant mortality. Maternal characteristics, such as age at the birth of the child and education, are significantly associated with infant and child mortality. Given the large variation in public health expenditure across the state, this study suggests that a substantial targeted investment in public health is required to improve health outcomes in the laggard states of India.

Background: To investigate the association between public health spending and probability of infant and child death in India.Methods: We used data from the three rounds of National Family Health Survey (NFHS) conducted in India during 1992-93, 1998-99 and 2005-06 to investigate the association between public health spending and probability of infant and child death. We used data from the birth history of three NFHS rounds to create state-year panels of births, infant and child deaths, state-level public finance variables, food grain production, household and individual variables for the period 1980-2005. Two-stage probit regression model is used to investigate the association. State-level per capita gross fiscal deficit is used as an instrument for estimating two-stage probit model.Findings: Findings suggest association between public health spending and infant and child mortality in India. A 10% increase in per capita public health spending is likely to reduce the probability of infant and child deaths by 0•005 (95% CI: 0•003, 0•007) and 0•003 (95% CI: 0•002, 0•004) respectively. The second and third lags of public health spending were also statistically significant. Other factors affecting infant and child death were sex of the child, birth order, mother's age at birth of the index child, mother's schooling and urban-rural residence.Interpretation: Public health spending was associated with probability of infant and child death in India. Our findings lend support to the government's initiative to increase public health spending in India.

The evaluation of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) by the Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (DCP3) focuses on maternal conditions, childhood illness, and malnutrition. Specifically, the chapters address acute illness and undernutrition in children, principally under age 5. It also covers maternal mortality, morbidity, stillbirth, and influences to pregnancy and pre-pregnancy. Volume 3 focuses on developments since the publication of DCP2 and will also include the transition to older childhood, in particular, the overlap and commonality with the child development volume. The DCP3 evaluation of these conditions produced three key findings: 1. There is significant difficulty in measuring the burden of key conditions such as unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, nonsexually transmitted infections, infertility, and violence against women. 2. Investments in the continuum of care can have significant returns for improved and equitable access, health, poverty, and health systems. 3. There is a large difference in how RMNCH conditions affect different income groups; investments in RMNCH can lessen the disparity in terms of both health and financial risk.

Van der Klaauw and Wang focus on infant and child mortality in rural areas of India. They construct a flexible duration model framework that allows for frailty at multiple levels and interactions between the child's age and individual socioeconomic, and environmental characteristics. The model is estimated using the 1998-99 wave of the Indian National Family and Health Survey. The estimated results show that socioeconomic and environmental characteristics have significantly different effects on mortality rates at different ages. These are particularly important immediately after birth. The authors use the estimated model for policy experiments. These indicate that child mortality can be reduced substantially, particularly by improving the education of women and reducing indoor air pollution caused by cooking fuels. In addition, providing access to electricity and sanitation facilities can reduce under-five-years mortality rates significantly. This paper--a product of the Environment Department--is part of a larger effort in the department to improve our understanding of environmental determinants of child mortality in rural India.

It is a pleaser to have first edition of the book “Out of pocket expenditure for healthcare of sick infants among urban slum and rural community members in Odisha, India ” which will be helpful to students and teacher doing research in interdisciplinary subject in science in large extent. This book has been written to help students in their special paper public health at PG level.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Ten years in public health 2007-2017 chronicles the evolution of global public health over the decade that Margaret Chan served as Director-General at the World Health Organization. This series of chapters evaluates successes setbacks and enduring challenges during the decade. They show what needs to be done when progress stalls or new threats emerge. The chapters show how WHO technical leadership can get multiple partners working together in tandem under coherent strategies. The importance of country leadership and community engagement is stressed repeatedly throughout the chapters. Together we have made tremendous progress. Health and life expectancy have improved nearly everywhere. Millions of lives have been saved. The number of people dying from malaria and HIV has been cut in half. WHO efforts to stop TB saved 49 million lives since the start of this century. In 2015 the number of child deaths dropped below 6 million for the first time a 50% decrease in annual deaths since 1990. Every day 19 000 fewer children die. We are able to count these numbers because of the culture of measurement and accountability instilled in WHO. These chapters tell a powerful story of global challenges and how they have been overcome. In a world facing considerable uncertainty international health development is a unifying – and uplifting – force for the good of humanity.