Table 1

Demographic and maternal health characteristics among neonates born to mothers using emergency medical services in five states in India, February–April 2014

n=1431%
Maternal demographic characteristics
 Age
  Median (IQR)2321–26
  15–19704.9
  20–2480956.5
  25–2943430.3
  30–34926.4
  35–39231.6
  40–4430.2
 State
  Andhra Pradesh38126.6
  Assam20114.0
  Gujarat47733.3
  Karnataka34223.9
  Meghalaya302.1
 Geographic location
  Rural/tribal132392.5
  Urban1087.5
 Social status*
  Backward caste50835.5
  Other caste28419.8
  Scheduled caste25417.7
  Scheduled tribe38126.6
 Economic status†
  Pink ration card42229.5
  White ration card98769.0
 Education level completed
  None52836.9
  Primary35724.9
  Secondary38126.6
  Intermediate815.7
  Graduate degree372.6
 Occupation
  Homemaker107975.4
  Other35224.6
 Medical history
  Anaemia996.9
  Hypertension100.7
  Pulmonary disease40.3
  HIV20.1
 Antenatal care visits
  1–373251.2
  >367146.9
  ≥1 visit with a physician111177.6
  Iron supplementation119783.6
 Parity
  Multiparous81857.2
  Nulliparous61342.8
 Age at first pregnancy‡
  Median (IQR)2120–22
  15–1919724.1
  20–2455067.2
  25–29657.9
  30–3430.4
 Years since prior pregnancy‡
  ≤236444.5
  321125.8
  ≥323729.0

  • *Self-identified caste is used as a proxy for social status and in India and is often used in national population health level monitoring. Scheduled caste is the lowest, most socially disadvantaged group. ‘Scheduled tribe’ is also a disadvantaged group. ‘Backward caste’ is an intermediary group socially and ‘other caste’ includes all those who do not belong to the aforementioned group and have the highest social status.

  • †Economic status is defined by whether patients were dependent on the low-income government health insurance programme (white ration card).

  • ‡Of multiparous mothers only (n=818).