G: India: equity effects of quality improvements on health service utilisation and patient satisfaction in Uttar Pradesh State. In Reaching the poor with health, nutrition and population services: what works, what doesn't and why Edited by: Gwatkin D, Wag

During the past half century, India has made substantial improvements in health outcomes (Ramana, Sastry, and Peters 2002). Yet health conditions for India’s billion people are still comparable to those in other low-income countries. India’s infant mortality rate, for instance, is 68 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with 76 for the low-income group (World Bank 2002). Uttar Pradesh, which, with its population of 170 million people, is India’s most populous state, has benefited little from the advances that have been made.1 With an infant mortality rate of 83 per 1,000 live births, Uttar Pradesh is worse off than the average low-income country and is India’s lowest-ranked state in terms of human development.2 Socioeconomic inequalities in utilization of health care and in health out-comes are large in India and are even more pronounced in Uttar Pradesh and neighboring states. This suggests that the poor have benefited less than the better off from publicly provided health services (Gwatkin and others 2000; Mahal and others 2001; Peters and others 2002). According to th