Healthcare infrastructure, contraceptive use and infant mortality in Uttar Pradesh, India

This paper analyzes data on approximately 30,000 women from a survey in Uttar Pradesh in 1995 together with the data from surveys of public and private providers of healthcare and family planning services. A framework was developed for analyzing the effects of quality of services on utilization, and for understanding the gradual evolution of the healthcare infrastructure. The empirical results from logistic regressions for use of female sterilization and IUD showed significant effects of quality of services in government and private hospitals, and of socioeconomic variables such as education, caste, and an index of household possessions. Secondly, models for infant mortality of children born in the preceding 3-year period showed significant effects of socioeconomic variables, quality of healthcare services and birth spacing. Lastly, analysis of data at a more aggregated (Primary Sampling Unit) level indicated differential effects of economic development on the quality of services available in the public and private facilities.