Original articles from Asia examining gender-related disparity in healthcare in paediatric populations, categorised by country, presented chronologically
| Country | Authors (year) | Type of study | N | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| India | Ganatra et al (1994)62 | Cross-sectional | 456 | In under-5 children, parents were willing to spend more, travel extra distances, seek care from registered physicians for boys compared to girls |
| Griffiths et al (2002)63 | Retrospective | 8892 | No significant differences by gender in weight for age in the under-5 age group in three Indian states | |
| Borooah et al (2004)64 | Retrospective | 4000 | Children—Immunisation rate and likelihood of getting nutritious diet when the mother is illiterate is 5% less in girls than in boys | |
| Bhan et al (2005)65 | Prospective | 85 633 | Children—Hospitalisation rates for diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections or other febrile illness were significantly lower for girls | |
| Sahni et al (2008)* 24 | Retrospective | 33 524(deliveries) | Single hospital 11 decade review—Second child sex ratios if first born is girl, 716 females versus 1000 males | |
| Asfaw et al (2010)12 | Cross-sectional | †60th Indian National Sample Survey (NSS) data set | Higher adjusted rate of hospitalisation for boys, higher outside borrowing/extreme measures for boys versus girls for meeting hospitalisation expenditures | |
| Ramakrishnan et al (2011)13 | Prospective | 405 | Lesser proportion of girls underwent recommended cardiac surgery for paediatric congenital heart disease | |
| Singh et al (2012)36 | Cross-sectional | ‡1972(1992–93), 3930 (2005–06) | Gender-based within-household inequality against females in immunisation—Persistent but improved in the past 10 years | |
| Nepal | Pokhrel et al (2005)53 | Retrospective | 8112 | Children—Gender was a factor-determining choice of external care and choice of bearing the expenditure required for treatment with a bias towards males, although not statistically significant. |
| Bangladesh | Dancer et al (2008)66 | Cross-sectional | 5172 | 2004 Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey (BDHS) analysis—Better nutritional status for males versus females, higher z-scores for height for age |
| Rousham et al (1996)52 | Prospective | 1366 | Height and weight for age—Less for females in landless, poor households | |
| Mitra et al (2000)20 | Prospective | 496 | In children, females more likely to die of severe diarrhoea, late presentation to hospital | |
| Pakistan | Nuruddin et al (2009)49 | Cross-sectional | 3740 | Higher female versus male under-5 mortality, but not attributed to differential healthcare-seeking behaviour |
| China | Attane et al (2009)* 19 | Retrospective | †Census data—Multiple years | Census data analysis—Proves existence of lethal healthcare neglect in females in provinces of China |
*Data not directly focusing on healthcare allocation, but significant due to large population-based studies exposing gender-based neglect of girls.
†Numbers not explicitly reported/census data sets.
‡Number of eligible households, two separate cross-sectional time points.