By Indiana University, A new study has found that in spite of their universal health care system which facilitates access to free dementia care, older adults in the United Kingdom are less willing to undergo dementia screening than their counterparts in the U.S. because the Britons perceive greater societal stigma from diagnosis of the disease than do Americans.

Researchers surveyed 125 older adults in Indianapolis and 120 older adults in Kent, England, on their opinions on the perceived harms and benefits of dementia screening. None of those surveyed had been diagnosed with dementia, however significantly more of the U.K. participants (48 percent) had close friends or relatives who have or had Alzheimer\'s disease compared to U.S. participants (27 percent).

The study of public attitudes toward early detection of dementia across different health-care systems was conducted by researchers from Indiana University in the United States and the universities of Kent and London in the United Kingdom. The research was funded in part by the U.S. National Institute on Aging, and appears in an advance online publication of the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

\"From my prospective, it was a genuine surprise that having a universal health care system, which provides services and support to all those who need it, didn\'t protect from perceived stigma and negativity,\" said the study\'s corresponding author, Malaz Boustani, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine and a Regenstrief Institute research scientist.

Even when taking into account education and race differences, Britons indicated greater concern with the stigma of diagnosis, with potential loss of independence, and with emotional suffering than their American counterparts.

\"This study, which investigates the acceptance and societal stigma associated with dementia – something very difficult to track – provides us with a unique insight as Americans debate the pros and cons of universal health care,\" said study first author, Michael Justiss, Ph.D., assistant professor of occupational therapy, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Dementia is a growing global public health problem in both countries leading to a high burden of suffering for society with an annual cost of $100 billion in the U.S. and $10 billion in the U.K.

\"In spite of the fact that new strategies for both treatment and prevention of dementia are currently being developed, this study gives us an initial awareness so that we can develop improved care pathways for dementia. We hope the United Kingdom\'s Dementia Strategy published in the next few months will consider some of this study\'s findings,\" said Chris Fox, MB, BS of the University of Kent, who led the British researchers.

\"This pilot study is the beginning, not the end. We need to do further exploration with a bigger sample, with different types of individuals. But this study which found deep concern about dementia screening despite access to health care services in U.K., clearly tells us that there are many issues we must explore as we attempt to retool the American health care system. We have to be careful not to put the horse before the cart as we debate national health care in the U.S.,\" said Dr. Boustani, who is also an IU Center for Aging Research center scientist. Dr. Boustani has written extensively on the dementia screening.

By IANS, New Delhi, Jan 15 - As many as 78,000 women die each year in India from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, according to a Unicef report released here Thursday.

This implies that on an average every seven minutes, one woman dies from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, reports the Unicef State of the World\'s Children 2009.

The report also highlights that in India, more than two-thirds of all maternal deaths occur in a few states - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkand, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Assam.

\'We know what needs to be done to save the lives of the 78,000 women who die in India each year. In addition, about one million neonatal deaths occur here annually,\' Unicef India representative Karin Hulshof said while releasing the report at the India Habitat Centre.

According to the report, India has managed to cut under-five mortality rate from 117 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 72 in 2007. But there has been little change in the 2001-03 maternal mortality rate of 301 for every 100,000 live births, and the Unicef says there is little chance of reaching the goal of cutting this ratio to 109 by 2015.

There is regional disparity here as well. In Uttar Pradesh, a woman has a one in 42 lifetime risk of maternal death compared with a probability of one in 500 for women in Kerala.

\'The health and survival of mothers and their newborns is intrinsically linked. Many of the same interventions that save maternal lives also benefit their infants. Primary healthcare must be made available to all of India\'s vulnerable women and children so that they can survive and thrive,\' Hulshof averred.

The report finds that health services are most effective in an environment supportive of women\'s empowerment, protection and education.

Both mothers and infants are vulnerable in the days and weeks after birth - this is a critical time for life-saving interventions like post-natal visits, proper hygiene and counselling about danger signs of maternal and newborn health, the report points out.

The report raps the state of healthcare services in developing countries saying that 99 percent of global deaths arising from pregnancy and complications occur in the developing world.

\'It is a well-known fact that Indian women work endlessly but end up going to sleep on an empty stomach, that is their condition,\' said Syeda Hameed, a member of the Indian government\'s Planning Commission, who was also present on the occasion.

\'Economic gains cannot be sustained if the well being of women and children, that is two-thirds our population, is not secured,\' Hameed added.

Also present at the launch was Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon, who has widely endorsed the cause of maternal care in the country.