Women's health from a global economic perspective

Women’s health is often comprised of both reproductive and maternal health and covers health issues in women’s reproductive lifespan. In order to improve both reproductive and maternal health, the continuum of care approach which recognizes the need for health service during women’s reproductive years is needed. The main objective of this thesis is to identify epidemiological aspects as well as economic impact of different health interventions in order to improve women’s health and well-being in diverse settings.
The first section of this thesis covers reproductive health issues, with a focus on scaling up family planning interventions in low and middle-income countries (L-MICs), as improving family planning is still considered priority in this setting. Using the concept of health economic evaluation, the results confirmed that scaling up family planning interventions would be cost-effective and potentially cost-saving along with substantial favorable health outcomes, even in L-MICs with distinctive patterns in contraceptive prevalence, unmet need, and cost-effectiveness thresholds.
The second part of the thesis concerns maternal health, in particular, gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia. We explore the association between antidepressant use and the risk of developing gestational hypertension. Although the underlying mechanism of the association remains unclear, it is present. It is important that both healthcare professionals and patients are informed about this association and carefully consider it in pregnancy management. Additionally, economic evaluation of pre-eclampsia, with a main focus on screening is also assessed in this section. The results indicate that a new screening test using novel biomarkers has the potential to be a cost-effective option for clinical practice.
Continuous efforts are warranted in order to improve women’s health and reduce preventable morbidity and mortality in mothers and women in general. Assessment and implementation of more functional linkages between reproductive and maternal health services should also be more encouraged.