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Impact of microfinance health interventions on health-related outcomes among female informal workers in Pakistan: a retrospective quasi-experimental study

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of microfinance health interventions (health insurance and health-awareness programmes) on health-related outcomes among female informal workers in Pakistan. DESIGN: We conducted a retrospective, quasi-experimental study among a total of 4...

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Autores principales: Jafree, Sara Rizvi, Zakar, Rubeena, Ahsan, Humna, Mustafa, Mudasir, Fischer, Florian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7786800/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33402411
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043544
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author Jafree, Sara Rizvi
Zakar, Rubeena
Ahsan, Humna
Mustafa, Mudasir
Fischer, Florian
author_facet Jafree, Sara Rizvi
Zakar, Rubeena
Ahsan, Humna
Mustafa, Mudasir
Fischer, Florian
author_sort Jafree, Sara Rizvi
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of microfinance health interventions (health insurance and health-awareness programmes) on health-related outcomes among female informal workers in Pakistan. DESIGN: We conducted a retrospective, quasi-experimental study among a total of 442 female borrowers from seven microfinance providers (MFPs) across four provinces of Pakistan in 2018. A standardised tool was used for data collection. Probit regression was used to identify the probability of female borrowers gaining improvements in health outcomes based on their sociodemographic characteristics. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to assess the overall impact of health interventions. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Four health-related outcomes reported by the women were used: perception of good health overall, ability to visit a general practitioner, ability to purchase prescribed medicine and intake of multivitamins. RESULTS: We found that women receiving health interventions had a greater probability of better health outcomes when they were from Punjab province, borrowing in groups and attending monthly meetings at MFPs. Even with a small loan amount, all four health-related outcomes were significantly associated with receiving health insurance and health-awareness programmes. PSM results show a greater likelihood of overall perceived good health (nearest neighbour matching (NNM) =17.4%; kernel matching (KM) =11.8%) when health insurance is provided and a significant improvement in the ability to purchase prescribed medicine when a health-awareness programme is provided (NNM=10.1%; KM=11.7%). CONCLUSION: Health and social policies are vital to secure health and well-being among poor women working in the informal sector. Targeting improved equity across female population groups for health interventions will in the long run improve poor women’s health, income-earning abilities and capacity expansion for small businesses.
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spelling pubmed-77868002021-01-14 Impact of microfinance health interventions on health-related outcomes among female informal workers in Pakistan: a retrospective quasi-experimental study Jafree, Sara Rizvi Zakar, Rubeena Ahsan, Humna Mustafa, Mudasir Fischer, Florian BMJ Open Public Health OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of microfinance health interventions (health insurance and health-awareness programmes) on health-related outcomes among female informal workers in Pakistan. DESIGN: We conducted a retrospective, quasi-experimental study among a total of 442 female borrowers from seven microfinance providers (MFPs) across four provinces of Pakistan in 2018. A standardised tool was used for data collection. Probit regression was used to identify the probability of female borrowers gaining improvements in health outcomes based on their sociodemographic characteristics. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to assess the overall impact of health interventions. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Four health-related outcomes reported by the women were used: perception of good health overall, ability to visit a general practitioner, ability to purchase prescribed medicine and intake of multivitamins. RESULTS: We found that women receiving health interventions had a greater probability of better health outcomes when they were from Punjab province, borrowing in groups and attending monthly meetings at MFPs. Even with a small loan amount, all four health-related outcomes were significantly associated with receiving health insurance and health-awareness programmes. PSM results show a greater likelihood of overall perceived good health (nearest neighbour matching (NNM) =17.4%; kernel matching (KM) =11.8%) when health insurance is provided and a significant improvement in the ability to purchase prescribed medicine when a health-awareness programme is provided (NNM=10.1%; KM=11.7%). CONCLUSION: Health and social policies are vital to secure health and well-being among poor women working in the informal sector. Targeting improved equity across female population groups for health interventions will in the long run improve poor women’s health, income-earning abilities and capacity expansion for small businesses. BMJ Publishing Group 2021-01-05 /pmc/articles/PMC7786800/ /pubmed/33402411 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043544 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
spellingShingle Public Health
Jafree, Sara Rizvi
Zakar, Rubeena
Ahsan, Humna
Mustafa, Mudasir
Fischer, Florian
Impact of microfinance health interventions on health-related outcomes among female informal workers in Pakistan: a retrospective quasi-experimental study
title Impact of microfinance health interventions on health-related outcomes among female informal workers in Pakistan: a retrospective quasi-experimental study
title_full Impact of microfinance health interventions on health-related outcomes among female informal workers in Pakistan: a retrospective quasi-experimental study
title_fullStr Impact of microfinance health interventions on health-related outcomes among female informal workers in Pakistan: a retrospective quasi-experimental study
title_full_unstemmed Impact of microfinance health interventions on health-related outcomes among female informal workers in Pakistan: a retrospective quasi-experimental study
title_short Impact of microfinance health interventions on health-related outcomes among female informal workers in Pakistan: a retrospective quasi-experimental study
title_sort impact of microfinance health interventions on health-related outcomes among female informal workers in pakistan: a retrospective quasi-experimental study
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7786800/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33402411
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043544
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