Developing and validating a Women’s Health Index for India
Sehgal, Meena, Jatrana, Santosh, and Johnson, Louise (2025) Developing and validating a Women’s Health Index for India. Journal of Public Health Policy, 46 (2). e009885. pp. 342-358.
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Abstract
Developing a women’s health index is particularly important in the Indian context due to the pronounced disparities in women’s health across various social, economic, and geographical segments. This paper focuses on the development and validation of a comprehensive Women’s Health Index (WHI) for India. In contrast to previous efforts that predominantly focused on indicators related to pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, often limited to reproductive or maternal health services, our index adopts a multi-dimensional approach. The WHI comprises 17 variables, representing life stages of women and encompassing a diverse range of factors. Utilizing Principal Component Analysis, we computed the index and conducted statistical tests for internal and external validation. The spatial pattern of WHI reveals substantial inter-district and inter-state disparities. This study thus provides a valuable tool for characterizing women’s health and identifying health inequalities at a smaller administrative level in India.
| Item ID: | 87981 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1745-655X |
| Keywords: | Health determinants, Health indicators, Index, India, Women health |
| Copyright Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Date Deposited: | 06 Mar 2026 04:49 |
| FoR Codes: | 44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4407 Policy and administration > 440705 Gender, policy and administration @ 50% 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4206 Public health > 420699 Public health not elsewhere classified @ 50% |
| SEO Codes: | 20 HEALTH > 2004 Public health (excl. specific population health) > 200499 Public health (excl. specific population health) not elsewhere classified @ 100% |
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