Addressing the reproductive health needs of women from refugee backgrounds: effectiveness and economic evaluation of maternity care models in Victoria, Australia
To allocate resources and offer sustained care to refugee women, evaluating these models' effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and implementation challenges is critical.
The goal of this PhD is to determine the most appropriate, effective and cost-effective maternity care models of care among refugee background women living in Victoria, Australia.
What is already known?
Women from refugee backgrounds tend to experience poor obstetric outcomes and encounter more difficulties in accessing healthcare facilities. They are more likely to have negative childbirth consequences, including mortality, than women from the host nation.
Numerous studies in high-income nations have repeatedly demonstrated that maternal mortality is more prevalent among women with refugee backgrounds. A review of 13 studies regarding migrant women living in Western Europe, which involved over 42 million women and documented 4,995 maternal deaths, revealed that these women had a twofold increased risk of dying during or after pregnancy than women from the host nation. Refugee background women in Australia face multiple obstacles when accessing maternal health services, including language barriers, cultural differences, and unfamiliarity with the healthcare system.
What this study adds
Choosing an appropriate model for maternity care among women from refugee backgrounds women is vital. It is also essential to comprehend the cultural and socioeconomic factors, health perspectives, and practices affecting their healthcare access. These measures are crucial to ensuring the delivery of adequate healthcare services, and it is vital for population groups with inequalities in access to healthcare.
However, the introduction or choice of the new program requires evidence of its effectiveness and efficiency over the existing model of care. This doctoral research will examine the most appropriate and effective maternity care, evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the selected models of care and explore the barriers to implementing these interventions in Victoria, Australia. Assessing the cost-effectiveness of the appropriate maternity care models will provide insights for policy decision-makers on resource allocation to achieve a more equitable, efficient and effective way of responding to the healthcare needs of women from refugee backgrounds women living in Victoria, Australia.
What’s next?
This PhD research project aims to enhance understanding of appropriate and cost-effective maternity models of care for refugee women in Victoria, Australia. It encompasses multiple studies, including assessing the utilisation of maternity care and perinatal outcomes for refugee women compared to the general population, collecting expert opinions to inform evidence-based decision-making on suitable care models, conducting an economic analysis to determine the cost-effectiveness of different care models from both provider and healthcare system perspectives, and examining the challenges and lessons learned from implementing existing models to facilitate the development and implementation of new models.
Ultimately, the project aims to provide valuable insights for decision-makers in allocating resources for maternal health services for refugee women.
