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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Gender bias in seeking heart treatment

Gender bias in seeking heart treatment

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published Published on May 26, 2016   modified Modified on May 26, 2016
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: Several parents in northern India seeking treatment for children with congenital heart disorders appear to favour boys over girls, a team of cardiologists reported today, corroborating earlier findings that gender bias may be denying even life-saving health care to girls.

The cardiologists at the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital in Ludhiana have said that even the promise of free treatment has not eroded the underlying gender bias among some parents that has earlier been documented in nutrition, immunisation and cardiac surgery services.

Their analysis has found 324 boys (62 per cent) in a sample of 519 children who underwent cardiac procedures, a finding that the cardiologists consider unusual because the incidence of congenital heart disorders is nearly the same in girls as in boys.

"Our medical records show a deep-rooted gender bias that seems to persist despite gains in literacy and that keeps parents from bringing girls to the hospital," Shibba Takkar Chhabra, an associate professor of cardiology at the Dayanand Medical College who led the study, told this newspaper.

"We don't think economic and financial reasons are keeping parents from bringing more girls for treatment," she said.

Most of the children whose medical records they examined had been detected with congenital heart disorders during routine screening in schools implemented by the government. The children diagnosed with disorders were then referred to tertiary hospitals for government-paid treatment at no cost to parents or guardians.

Among 519 children, 459 had congenital heart disorders that typically led to breathlessness, easy tiredness, heart palpitations, swollen feet or abdomen and frequent lung infections, among other symptoms. Left untreated, such conditions are likely to worsen and cause heart failure or death.

The cardiologists observed that even after factoring in differences in the number of boys and girls with congenital heart disorders actually brought to the hospital for treatment, there was an absolute difference of nearly 9 per cent between boys and girls.

Their study, published today in the journal Heart Asia, also found no significant difference between urban and rural children. Most of the children were from households in Punjab and some from Haryana.

"Whether the children were from urban or rural households, we saw similar patterns, more boys brought for treatment than girls," Chhabra said.

Doctors not associated with the Ludhiana study say similar gender bias appears in other illnesses too.

"What is most astonishing about the new results is that parents' attitudes appeared unchanged even when free treatment was available for their children," said Sivasubramanian Ramakrishnan, a professor of cardiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.

Ramakrishnan and his colleagues had five years ago observed a similar pattern of gender differences in the use of surgery services for congenital heart disease among children brought to the AIIMS.

"But at that time, most of the parents we saw had to pay, so finance could have been a consideration."

The AIIMS doctors had five years ago questioned parents about their decisions and found that concerns about future matrimonial prospects of girls and lack of social support were among factors contributing to their decisions to delay or avoid the surgeries prescribed for congenital heart disorders.

The Telegraph, 26 May, 2016, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160526/jsp/nation/story_87733.jsp#.V0Zd4yH3-ho


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