BMJ  2006;333:971 (4 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7575.971

Letter

Health in the Middle East

Making healthcare systems more responsive to women in Pakistan

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Health seeking behaviour depends largely on the attributes of a healthcare system and not merely on people's choices or circumstances.1 Lack of proper nutrition for girls, early marriages, and multiparity have been some of the determinants of the unrelenting ill health of women in Pakistan.2 Insufficient primary care services, antenatal care, and intrapartum care, particularly in the public sector, are the reality.3


Figure Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)
View larger version (92K):



 
 

This situation has contributed to frightening indicators of maternal and child morbidity and mortality in the country.4 Qualitative research was conducted with women of the district of Ghizar in northern Pakistan, a remote terrain where healthcare provision in the public and private sectors is even worse. High fertility rates, large family sizes, low literacy rates, and mediocre income per head are demographic features. Iron deficiency anaemia is the most widespread nutritional problem among women and has severe consequences for their reproductive health.

Local women largely rely . . . [Full text of this article]

Babar T Shaikh, senior instructor, health systems division1, Juanita Hatcher, associate professor2, David Haran, senior lecturer3

1 Department of Community Health Sciences, Aga Khan University, Stadium Road, PO Box 3500, Karachi 74800, Pakistan babar.shaikh@aku.edu, 2 Department of Community Health Sciences, Aga Khan University, Stadium Road, PO Box 3500, Karachi 74800, Pakistan, 3 Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L3 5QA


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Maternal and child health: is South Asia ready for change?
Zulfiqar A Bhutta, Indu Gupta, Harendra de'Silva, Dharma Manandhar, Shally Awasthi, S M Moazzem Hossain, and M A Salam
BMJ 2004 328: 816-819. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Social Awareness
Nabeela Nisar, et al.
bmj.com, 7 Nov 2006 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ