Impact of Women’s Self-Help Groups on Health Literacy and Empowerment in Rural Wardha, India

Background and Objectives: Women empowerment and health literacy are very important concepts in societal development and improvement of health status of the community. We aimed to assess the effect of women’s self-help group (SHG) membership on health literacy and women empowerment.Materials and Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study using quantitative method and PLA tool. Semi-structured questionnaire-based survey was conducted with randomly selected ۱۸۰ SHG and non-SHG women each. ۳ gender resource mapping activities were also conducted with both the groups. Ordinal and logistic regression analysis was performed to study the determinants of health literacy and women empowerment respectively.Results: Overall, ۶۵% and ۲۰% SHG and non-SHG women respectively had sufficient health literacy. The proportion with excellent health literacy was very poor (۱% and ۰% respectively). The overall women empowerment index was ۰.۳۷۶ (۰.۵۴۸ in SHG and ۰.۲۰۸ in non-SHG women). SHG women had higher odds of being empowered [aOR=۱.۱۸ (۱.۰۹-۱.۳۰)] and about ۸ times higher odds of having better health literacy [aOR=۸.۷۰ (۵.۲۴-۱۴.۷۹)]. Belonging to open and scheduled caste [aOR=۰.۸۱ (۰.۶۶-۰.۹۹) and ۱.۱۹ (۱.۰۷-۱.۳۴) respectively], having sufficient/excellent health literacy [aOR=۱.۲۰ (۱.۰۲-۱.۴۲)] were other significant determinants of women empowerment. Age [aOR=۰.۹۶ (۰.۹۴-۰.۹۸)], belonging to Scheduled tribe [aOR=۰.۴۷ (۰.۲۲-۰.۹۷)], having standard of living index class ۳ [aOR=۳.۴۲ (۱.۲۹-۹.۱۱)] were other significant determinants of health literacy among women. Mostly, men had better access and control of resources i.e. basic needs and assets of day-to-day living. Women from both groups had better access and control over clothes, jewellery and their own earnings. In addition, SHG women had equal or better control over household stuffs, education, food than their spouses. Conclusion: Further promoting such groups and understanding of the group dynamics may help in enhancing health literacy and women empowerment in addition to overall efforts of improving these in the community as a whole.Keywords: Community-Based Organizations, Gender, Gender Resource Mapping, Health Promotion, Household Resources .

کلیدواژه ها:

Community-Based Organizations ، Gender ، Gender Resource Mapping ، health promotion ، Household Resources