Continuum of care throughout pregnancy, delivery and post-delivery has proved to be a critical health intervention for improving the health of mothers and their newborn children. Using data from the fourth wave of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) conducted in 2015–16, this study examined the correlates of utilization of maternal health care services and child immunization following the continuum of care approach in India. The study also assessed whether the continuity in utilizing maternal health care services affects the immunization of children. A total of 33,422 survey women aged 15–49 were included in the analysis of maternal health care indicators, and 8246 children aged 12–23 months for the analysis of child immunization. The results indicated that about 19% of the women had completed the maternal health continuum, i.e. received full antenatal care, had an institutional delivery and received postnatal care. Women with a higher level of education and of higher economic status were more likely to have complete continuum of care. Continuity of maternal health care was found to be associated with an increase in the immunization level of children. It was observed that 76% of the children whose mothers had complete continuum of care were fully immunized. Furthermore, the results from propensity score matching revealed that if mothers received continuum of care, the chance of their child being fully immunized increased by 17 percentage points. The results suggest that promotion of the continuum of maternal health care approach could help reduce not only the burden of maternal deaths in India, but also that of child deaths by increasing the immunization level of children.

中文翻译：

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印度孕产妇保健服务的连续性及其对儿童免疫接种的影响：倾向得分匹配方法的应用

整个孕期、分娩和分娩后的持续护理已被证明是改善母亲及其新生儿健康的关键健康干预措施。本研究利用 2015-16 年进行的第四次全国家庭健康调查 (NFHS-4) 的数据，检验了印度采用连续护理方法后利用孕产妇保健服务和儿童免疫接种的相关性。该研究还评估了使用孕产妇保健服务的连续性是否会影响儿童的免疫接种。共有33422名15-49岁的调查妇女被纳入孕产妇保健指标分析，8246名12-23个月的儿童被纳入儿童免疫分析。结果表明，约 19% 的妇女完成了孕产妇健康连续体，即 接受了全面的产前护理，进行了机构分娩并接受了产后护理。具有较高教育水平和较高经济地位的女性更有可能获得完整的连续护理。发现孕产妇保健的连续性与儿童免疫水平的提高有关。据观察，76% 的母亲接受完全连续护理的儿童完全接种了疫苗。此外，倾向得分匹配的结果显示，如果母亲得到持续的照顾，她们的孩子获得完全免疫的机会增加了 17 个百分点。结果表明，促进孕产妇保健方法的连续性不仅有助于减轻印度孕产妇死亡的负担，