IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0217557.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Obstacles and opportunities for monitoring ethnicity-based inequalities in maternal health care: Lessons from Mexico

Author

Listed:
  • Nancy Armenta-Paulino
  • María Sandín Vázquez
  • Francisco Bolúmar

Abstract

Background: Monitoring and reducing inequalities in health care has become more relevant since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs bring an opportunity to put the assessment of inequalities by ethnicity on the agenda of decision-makers. The objective of this qualitative study is to know how current monitoring is carried out and to identify what factors influence the process in order to incorporate indicators that allow the evaluation of inequalities by ethnicity. Methods: We conducted 17 semi-structured interviews with key informants from the health ministry, monitoring observatories, research centers, and international organizations, involved in maternal health care monitoring in Mexico. Our analysis was interpretative-phenomenological and focused on examining experiences about monitoring maternal health care in order to achieve a full picture of the current context in which it takes place and the factors that influence it. Results: The obstacles and opportunities pointed out from the participants emerge from the limitations or advantages associated with the accuracy of evaluation, availability of information and resources, and effective management and decision-making. Technicians, coordinators, researchers or decision-makers are not only aware of the inequalities but also of its importance. However, this does not lead to political decisions permitting an indicator to be developed for monitoring it. As for opportunities, the role of international organizations and their links with the countries is crucial to carry out monitoring, due to political and technical support. Conclusions: The success of a monitoring system to help decision-makers reduce inequalities in health care depends not only on accurate evaluations but also on the context in which it is implemented. Understanding the operation, obstacles and opportunities for monitoring could be a key issue if the countries want to advance towards assessing inequalities and reducing health inequities with the aid of concrete policies and initiatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Nancy Armenta-Paulino & María Sandín Vázquez & Francisco Bolúmar, 2019. "Obstacles and opportunities for monitoring ethnicity-based inequalities in maternal health care: Lessons from Mexico," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-15, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0217557
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217557
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217557
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217557&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0217557?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Piroska Östlin & Ted Schrecker & Ritu Sadana & Josiane Bonnefoy & Lucy Gilson & Clyde Hertzman & Michael P Kelly & Tord Kjellstrom & Ronald Labonté & Olle Lundberg & Carles Muntaner & Jennie Popay & G, 2011. "Priorities for Research on Equity and Health: Towards an Equity-Focused Health Research Agenda," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(11), pages 1-6, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jacqueline Ramke & Fatima Kyari & Nyawira Mwangi & MMPN Piyasena & GVS Murthy & Clare E Gilbert, 2019. "Cataract Services are Leaving Widows Behind: Examples from National Cross-Sectional Surveys in Nigeria and Sri Lanka," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-11, October.
    2. Aleli D Kraft & Kim-Huong Nguyen & Eliana Jimenez-Soto & Andrew Hodge, 2013. "Stagnant Neonatal Mortality and Persistent Health Inequality in Middle-Income Countries: A Case Study of the Philippines," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(1), pages 1-12, January.
    3. Patrick Bodenmann & Bernard Favrat & Hans Wolff & Idris Guessous & Francesco Panese & Lilli Herzig & Thomas Bischoff & Alejandra Casillas & Thomas Golano & Paul Vaucher, 2014. "Screening Primary-Care Patients Forgoing Health Care for Economic Reasons," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(4), pages 1-9, April.
    4. Anna Abelson & Carrie Lyons & Michele Decker & Sosthenes Ketende & Iliassou Mfochive Njindam & Ghislaine Fouda & Flavien Ndonko & Daniel Levitt & Ubald Tamoufe & Serge Billong & Anne-Cecile Zoung-Kany, 2019. "Lifetime experiences of gender-based violence, depression and condom use among female sex workers in Cameroon," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(6), pages 445-457, September.
    5. Davide Lucantoni & Andrea Principi & Marco Socci & Marina Zannella & Francesco Barbabella, 2022. "Active Ageing in Italy: An Evidence-Based Model to Provide Recommendations for Policy Making and Policy Implementation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-25, February.
    6. Gabriele Bolte & Katharina Jacke & Katrin Groth & Ute Kraus & Lisa Dandolo & Lotta Fiedel & Malgorzata Debiak & Marike Kolossa-Gehring & Alexandra Schneider & Kerstin Palm, 2021. "Integrating Sex/Gender into Environmental Health Research: Development of a Conceptual Framework," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-18, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0217557. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.