Maternal and Child Health in the Western Pacific Region: A Closer Look at the Lower and Middle Income Countries

This study explored the progress in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals 4 and five (5) fifteen years after it was agreed upon as health targets among member countries of the United Nations. Through literature review and data mining process, the following data of the Western Pacific Region’s lower and middle-income countries were scrutinized: 1) infant and child health situation in terms of percentage reduction in both infant and under-five mortality rates for the past 25 years and proportion of one-year-old children immunized against measles; 2) maternal health situation in terms of current maternal mortality ratio and its percentage reduction, proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel and percentage of antenatal care coverage; and 3) health care delivery system in terms of health expenditure as percentage of the country’s gross domestic products, presence of health infrastructures, and members of the health workforce. Results revealed that for infant mortality, those countries with a population of more than 250,000 fared well as compared to the smaller Pacific islands with a population of less than 250,000. For under-5 mortality rate, almost all of the LMICs did not meet the target. However, the majority of these countries met the target on the provision of measles immunization on time. For maternal health, the smaller Pacific islands fared well compared to the bigger countries. The majority of the LMICs performed poorly in this variable. Thus, most of the Region’s LMICs somehow almost achieved MDG4 (infant and child health) but are still far from achieving MDG5 (maternal health) on time. Lastly, the smaller Pacific islands again had a better status in all indicators of the healthcare delivery system (health expenditure, number of hospitals and health worker density ratio) as compared to the bigger countries. These indicators are considered crucial towards achieving the MDG targets and must, therefore, be addressed if they want to improve maternal health in the Region.

 

Keywords: Infant and child health, maternal health, healthcare delivery system, Western Pacific Region