title: Gender bias in child care and child health: global patterns.
abstract: Gender-based discrimination is reported across the spectrum of paediatric healthcare including emergency, inpatient, outpatient and preventive care and is mostly reported from South Asia and China with sporadic reports from Africa and South America. Biases against young girls have been documented even in immunisation percentage, home food allocation, seeking medical care for childhood ailments and percentage of household healthcare expenditures allocated to them. Such gender discrimination in access to medical care is likely to have an influence on the overall health of female children. Over the last five decades, the under-5 sex ratios are worsening in India with declining number of girls. Deliberate parental neglect of girls' essential and life-saving medical care is also an important contributing factor apart from sex-selective abortions to the declining gender ratios. Corrective measures and focused action are needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, , Iowa City, USA.
authors.forename: Rohan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Khera
authors.forename: Snigdha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.forename: Rakesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lodha
authors.forename: Sivasubramanian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramakrishnan
mesh_terms: D001208:Asia; D002648:Child; D002654:Child Care / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D046688:Child Mortality; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D012744:Sex Ratio; D063507:Sexism / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: General Paediatrics; Health Service