A Case-Control Study on Maternal Deaths in Uttar Pradesh, India

The main objective of this study is to determine the risk factors associated with maternal deaths. More specifically, to study the extent of maternal health care services received prior to deaths. A case control study was carried out to collect the information on 50 cases and 150 controls from a selected district of Uttar Pradesh, India. The deaths were identified from multiple sources e.g. health facility/hospital records, ASHA and snow-ball sampling method. The husband of dead women or any other family member who could provide reliable information was interviewed. Frequency distribution and cross tabulation has been done. Further, to check the association with different variables unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios will be calculated. Preliminary result indicates that most of these deaths belong to scheduled castes and other backward classes. Mostly cases were illiterate. Utilization of pregnancy, delivery and post delivery care services among cases were poor in comparison to controls.