A cross-sectional study to assess the out-of-pocket expenditure of families on the health care of children younger than 5 years in a rural area

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Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to estimate the out-of-pocket expenditure of families on the health care of children younger than 5 years in a rural area of Kancheepuram district.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed in a rural area of Kancheepuram district for 5 months. All households with at least one child younger than 5 years were eligible for the study, and 153 households were selected for the final study. A semistructured and pretested schedule was used to obtain information about various study variables during home visits. Ethics approval was obtained before the start of the study. Data were entered into Microsoft Excel, and statistical analysis was done with IBM SPSS Statistics version 23. Frequency distributions were calculated for all the variables.

Results: The findings indicate that most children younger than 5 years were males (62.7%). The maximum out-of-pocket expenditure was for accidents/trauma and in cases of fever/malaria. Further, 96 households (53.1%) preferred private-sector health care for their ailments.

Conclusion: The findings indicate that 93 of the children younger than 5 years (60.8%) had experienced one episode of illness in the previous 3 months. Further, the maximum out-of-pocket expenditure was for accident/trauma cases, and overall the largest share was for buying medications for the treatment.

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Maternal and neonatal health expenditure in mumbai slums (India): A cross sectional study

Jolene Skordis-Worrall, Noemi Pace, Ujwala Bapat … (2011)

Background The cost of maternity care can be a barrier to access that may increase maternal and neonatal mortality risk. We analyzed spending on maternity care in urban slum communities in Mumbai to better understand the equity of spending and the impact of spending on household poverty. Methods We used expenditure data for maternal and neonatal care, collected during post-partum interviews. Interviews were conducted in 2005-2006, with a sample of 1200 slum residents in Mumbai (India). We analysed expenditure by socio-economic status (SES), calculating a Kakwani Index for a range of spending categories. We also calculated catastrophic health spending both with and without adjustment for coping strategies. This identified the level of catastrophic payments incurred by a household and the prevalence of catastrophic payments in this population. The analysis also gave an understanding of the protection from medical poverty afforded by coping strategies (for example saving and borrowing). Results A high proportion of respondents spent catastrophically on care. Lower SES was associated with a higher proportion of informal payments. Indirect health expenditure was found to be (weakly) regressive as the poorest were more likely to use wage income to meet health expenses, while the less poor were more likely to use savings. Overall, the incidence of catastrophic maternity expenditure was 41%, or 15% when controlling for coping strategies. We found no significant difference in the incidence of catastrophic spending across wealth quintiles, nor could we conclude that total expenditure is regressive. Conclusions High expenditure as a proportion of household resources should alert policymakers to the burden of maternal spending in this context. Differences in informal payments, significantly regressive indirect spending and the use of savings versus wages to finance spending, all highlight the heavier burden borne by the most poor. If a policy objective is to increase institutional deliveries without forcing households deeper into poverty, these inequities will need to be addressed. Reducing out-of-pocket payments and better regulating informal payments should have direct benefits for the most poor. Alternatively, targeted schemes aimed at assisting the most poor in coping with maternal spending (including indirect spending) could reduce the household impact of high costs.

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Social exclusion, caste & health: a review based on the social determinants framework.

Suresh K. Nayar (2007)

Poverty and social exclusion are important socio-economic variables which are often taken for granted while considering ill-health effects. Social exclusion mainly refers to the inability of our society to keep all groups and individuals within reach of what we expect as society to realize their full potential. Marginalization of certain groups or classes occurs in most societies including developed countries and perhaps it is more pronounced in underdeveloped countries. In the Indian context, caste may be considered broadly as a proxy for socio-economic status and poverty. In the identification of the poor, scheduled caste and scheduled tribes and in some cases the other backward castes are considered as socially disadvantaged groups and such groups have a higher probability of living under adverse conditions and poverty. The health status and utilization patterns of such groups give an indication of their social exclusion as well as an idea of the linkages between poverty and health. In this review, we examined broad linkages between caste and some select health/health utilization indicators. We examined data on prevalence of anaemia, treatment of diarrhoea, infant mortality rate, utilization of maternal health care and childhood vaccinations among different caste groups in India. The data based on the National Family Health Survey II (NFHS II) highlight considerable caste differentials in health. The linkages between caste and some health indicators show that poverty is a complex issue which needs to be addressed with a multi-dimensional paradigm. Minimizing the suffering from poverty and ill-health necessitates recognizing the complexity and adopting a perspective such as holistic epidemiology which can challenge pure technocentric approaches to achieve health status.

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Care-seeking behavior and out-of-pocket expenditure for sick newborns among urban poor in Lucknow, northern India: a prospective follow-up study

Neeraj M Srivastava, Shally Awasthi, Girdhar Agarwal (2009)

Background The state of Uttar Pradesh, India accounts for one-quarter of India's neonatal deaths and 8 percent of those worldwide. More than half (52%) of these deaths occur due to infections. In order to achieve Millennium Development Goal-4 of reducing child mortality by two-thirds by the year 2015, it is important to study factors which affect neonatal health. In Uttar Pradesh there is meager data for spending on health care in general and neonates in particular. Methods The study was conducted at an urban Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) center and a District hospital. Neonates were enrolled within 48 hours of birth and were followed-up once at 6 weeks ± 15 days at the OPD of the respective hospitals or at home. This study assessed (1) distribution of neonatal illnesses and different health providers sought (2) distribution of out-of-pocket expenditures by type of illness and type of health provider sought (3) socio-economic distribution of neonatal illnesses, care-seeking behavior and out-of-pocket expenditures. Per-protocol analysis was performed. Results Five hundred and ten neonates were enrolled and 481(94.4%) were followed-up. Parents of 50.3% (242/481) neonates reported at least one symptom of illness. Of these 22.3% (107/481) neonates had illnesses with at least one reported Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illnesses (IMNCI) danger sign. Among IMNCI illnesses, point prevalence of septicemia was 6.2% and pneumonia was 5.2% while among non-IMNCI illnesses point prevalence of upper respiratory infection was 9.5%, and diarrhea was 7%. Community based non-government dispensers (NGDs) were leading health providers (37.6%). Mean monthly income of families was 2804 Indian Rupees (INR) (range: 800 to 14000; n = 510), where US$ 1 = 42 INR. Mean out-of-pocket expenditure on neonatal illness was 547.5 INR (range: 1 to 15000; n = 202) and mean out-of-pocket expenditure for hospitalization was 4993 INR (range: 41 to 15000; n = 17). All hospitalizations were for IMNCI illnesses. Neonates from lower income strata were less likely to receive any medical care (p < 0.0001) and were also less likely to be seen by a Government provider (p = 0.03). Conclusion Since more than half of the neonates have morbidity and out-of-pocket expenditure on neonatal illnesses often exceeds the family income of the lower strata of the low income group in the community, there is a need to either introduce health insurance scheme or subsidize health care for them. Also, since NGDs, half of which could be unqualified are leading health providers, qualified medical care-seeking for sick newborns should be promoted in urban Lucknow.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (publisher-id): FMCH

Title: Family Medicine and Community Health

Abbreviated Title: FMCH

Publisher: Compuscript (Ireland )

ISSN (Electronic): 2009-8774

ISSN (Print): 2305-6983

Publication date (Print): September 2018

Publication date (Electronic): September 2018

Volume: 6

Issue: 3

Pages: 124-130

Affiliations

[1] ¹Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India

Author notes

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Prateek Saurabh Shrivastava, Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, 3rd Floor, Ammapettai Village, Thiruporur – Guduvancherry Main Road, Sembakkam Post, Kancheepuram 603108, Tamil Nadu, India, Tel.: +91-9884227228, E-mail: prateekbobhate@ 123456gmail.com

Article

Publisher ID: FMCH.2018.0114

DOI: 10.15212/FMCH.2018.0114

SO-VID: 1072cf5a-e46f-4b86-9455-abbf5f55be86

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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

History

Date received : 6 April 2018

Date accepted : 28 June 2018

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Out-of-pocket expenditure of families on the healthcare of children younger than 5 years
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A cross-sectional study to assess the out-of-pocket expenditure of families on the health care of children younger than 5 years in a rural area

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Abstract

Most cited references 14

Maternal and neonatal health expenditure in mumbai slums (India): A cross sectional study

Social exclusion, caste & health: a review based on the social determinants framework.

Care-seeking behavior and out-of-pocket expenditure for sick newborns among urban poor in Lucknow, northern India: a prospective follow-up study

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