title: Child health inequalities and its dimensions in Pakistan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Poverty and inequality in health is pervasive in Pakistan. The provisions and conditions of health are very dismal. A significant proportion of the population (16.34%) of Pakistan is under 5 years, but Pakistan is in the bottom 5% of countries in the world in terms of spending on health and education. It is ranked the lowest in the world with sub-Sahara Africa in terms of child health equality. The objective of this study was to examine child health inequalities in Pakistan.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed data from Pakistan Integrated Household Survey/Household Integrated Economic Survey 2001-2002, collected by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan. Coverage of diarrhea and immunization were used as indicators of child health. Stata 11.0 was used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics including frequency distribution and proportions for categorical variables and mean for continuous variables were computed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children under 5 years of age account for about 16.34% of the total population, 11.76% (2.5 million) of whom suffered from diarrhea in 1-month. The average duration of a diarrheal episode was 7 days. About 72% of the children who had diarrhea lived in a house without pipe-borne water supply. Around 22% children who had diarrhea had no advice or treatment. More than one-third of the households had no toilet in the house, and only 29% of the households were connected with pipe-borne drinking water. About 7.73% (1.6 million) children had never been immunized. The main reason for nonimmunization was parents' lack of knowledge and of immunization.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Child health inequalities in Pakistan are linked with several factors such as severe poverty, illiteracy, lack of knowledge, and awareness of child healthcare, singularly inadequate provision of health services, and poor infrastructure.
authors.affiliation: International Academy, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK.
authors.forename: Fowad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Murtaza
authors.affiliation: College of Medicine, University of Dammam, Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Tajammal
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mustafa
authors.affiliation: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan, Islamabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Rabia
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Awan
keywords: Child health inequality; Pakistan; diarrhea; healthcare provision; immunization; poverty