Health Inequalities

 

Health Inequalities

Telangana is the eleventh largest and the twelfth most populated state of India. This state is well known for its higher proportion of females over males and the literacy rate of 72.80% (2017-18).

Let’s have a look at the health data of the state.

(The below analysis includes people of age 15 and above except where the age group is written)

• ·     Hypertension among adults – Hypertension leads to blood pressure problems. The women seem to be suffering less in this case as the total proportion is less than that of men who have a figure of 31.4% of them suffering from severe hypertension while the percentage comes down to 26.1 for women.
• ·     Blood sugar level – 14.7% of the females have a very high blood sugar level in comparison to 18.1% of the males. The percentage of women suffering from blood sugar issues (whether high or low, urban or rural) is lower than that of men in every aspect.
• ·     Amenia - Amenia among children is 70% in Telangana with 64.7% of Urban population and 72.8 of rural population. However, the percentage among men and women where the difference is from 15.3% to 57.6% respectively that implies that women are more prone to suffer from this disease.
• ·     Treatment of childhood disease - The percentage of children under 5 years of age getting medical attention does not differ by a huge margin in rural and urban areas. However, the percentage of a particular kind of medical attention is higher urban areas and the vice versa.
• ·     Child Vaccinations and Vitamin A Supplementation - Child vaccination and vitamin A supplementation percentage has been surprisingly higher in rural areas than in urban areas however most of the children in urban areas have received their vaccinations in a Private Health facility.
• ·     Delivery Care - In this Arena the women in urban areas have received better delivery care than those in rural areas the percentage difference might not seem to be that large but the urban women surely have a better access to facilities than the rural.
• ·     Maternal and Child Health - since the urban areas have better facilities here also the women in urban areas and their newborns have better access to health care then the women living in rural areas and their newborns.
• ·     Infant and Child Mortality Rates - All three- the neonatal mortality rate, infant mortality rate, and under 5 mortality rate are higher in rural areas due to lack of facilities. The urban areas in Telangana are not much behind in terms of mortality rates but the percentage is slightly lower than the rural areas.
• ·     Screening for Cancer among Adults – the screening for cervical cancer and breast cancer among women have been taken more in rural areas than in urban. On the other hand, the screening tests for oral cavity have been taken more by women in urban areas. The percentage of men screening for oral cancer is 2.6% with 1.9 % being men in urban areas and 3% men in rural areas.

This analysis shows health inequalities not only among men and women but also rural and urban areas.