ArticlePloS one2021
Effects of spousal migration on access to healthcare for women left behind: A cross-sectional follow-up study.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- A cross-country analysis of the effects of spousal migration on health care access for families left behind.Health affairs scholar · 2025Article
- Men's Migration and Women's Health in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Migration's Economic Returns and Spousal Communication.The International migration review · 2025Article
- Migration, Gender, and Families: The Effects of Spousal Migration on Women's Empowerment.Demography · 2024Article
- Long-term Consequences of Men's Migration for Women's Well-being in a Rural African Setting.Sociological perspectives : SP : official publication of the Pacific Sociological Association · 2023Article
- The effects of spousal migration on perinatal healthcare utilization.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2023Article
- Correction: Effects of spousal migration on access to healthcare for women left behind: A cross-sectional follow-up study.PloS one · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWomen left behind by migration represent a unique and growing population yet remain understudied as key players in the context of migration and development. Using a unique longitudinal survey of life in Bangladesh, the Matlab Health and Socioeconomic Surveys, we examined the role of spousal migration in healthcare utilization for women. The objective of this study was to assess realized access to care (do women actually get healthcare when it is needed) and consider specific macrostructural, predisposing, and resource barriers to care that are related to migration. METHODS AND
findingsIn a sample of 3,187 currently married women, we estimated multivariate logistic and multinomial regression models controlling for a wide range of baseline sociodemographic factors measured as far back as 1982. Our analyses also controlled for selection effects and explored two mechanisms through which spousal migration can affect healthcare utilization for women, remittances and frequent contact with spouses. We found that women with migrant spouses were approximately half as likely to lack needed healthcare compared to women whose spouses remained in Bangladesh (predicted probability of not getting needed healthcare 11.7% vs. 21.8%, p<0.001). The improvements in access (logistic regression coefficient for lacking care for left-behind women -0.761 p<0.01) primarily occurred through a reduction in financial barriers to care for women whose spouses were abroad.
conclusionsWives of international migrants showed significantly better access to healthcare even when accounting for selection into a migrant family. While the overall story is one of positive migration effects on healthcare access due to reductions in financial barriers to care, results also showed an increase in family-related barriers such as not being permitted to get care by a family member or travel alone to a facility, indicating that some of the benefits of migration for women left behind may be diluted by gendered family structures.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.