IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0157831.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessment of Universal Healthcare Coverage in a District of North India: A Rapid Cross-Sectional Survey Using Tablet Computers

Author

Listed:
  • Tarundeep Singh
  • Pritam Roy
  • Limalemla Jamir
  • Saurav Gupta
  • Navpreet Kaur
  • D K Jain
  • Rajesh Kumar

Abstract

Objective: A rapid survey was carried out in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar District of Punjab state in India to ascertain health seeking behavior and out-of-pocket health expenditures. Methods: Using multistage cluster sampling design, 1,008 households (28 clusters x 36 households in each cluster) were selected proportionately from urban and rural areas. Households were selected through a house-to-house survey during April and May 2014 whose members had (a) experienced illness in the past 30 days, (b) had illness lasting longer than 30 days, (c) were hospitalized in the past 365 days, or (d) had women who were currently pregnant or experienced childbirth in the past two years. In these selected households, trained investigators, using a tablet computer-based structured questionnaire, enquired about the socio-demographics, nature of illness, source of healthcare, and healthcare and household expenditure. The data was transmitted daily to a central server using wireless communication network. Mean healthcare expenditures were computed for various health conditions. Catastrophic healthcare expenditure was defined as more than 10% of the total annual household expenditure on healthcare. Chi square test for trend was used to compare catastrophic expenditures on hospitalization between households classified into expenditure quartiles. Results: The mean monthly household expenditure was 15,029 Indian Rupees (USD 188.2). Nearly 14.2% of the household expenditure was on healthcare. Fever, respiratory tract diseases, gastrointestinal diseases were the common acute illnesses, while heart disease, diabetes mellitus, and respiratory diseases were the more common chronic diseases. Hospitalizations were mainly due to cardiovascular diseases, gastrointestinal problems, and accidents. Only 17%, 18%, 20% and 31% of the healthcare for acute illnesses, chronic illnesses, hospitalizations and childbirth was sought in the government health facilities. Average expenditure in government health facilities was 16.6% less for acute care, 15% less for hospitalization and 50% less for childbirth than in the private healthcare facilities. Out-of-pocket expenditure was mostly on medicines followed by diagnostic and laboratory tests. Among households experiencing hospitalization, 56.5% had incurred catastrophic expenditures, which was significantly higher in the poorest compared to richest household expenditure quartile (p

Suggested Citation

  • Tarundeep Singh & Pritam Roy & Limalemla Jamir & Saurav Gupta & Navpreet Kaur & D K Jain & Rajesh Kumar, 2016. "Assessment of Universal Healthcare Coverage in a District of North India: A Rapid Cross-Sectional Survey Using Tablet Computers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-11, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0157831
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157831
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0157831
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0157831&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0157831?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sima Berendes & Peter Heywood & Sandy Oliver & Paul Garner, 2011. "Quality of Private and Public Ambulatory Health Care in Low and Middle Income Countries: Systematic Review of Comparative Studies," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(4), pages 1-10, April.
    2. Craig Leisher, 2014. "A Comparison of Tablet-Based and Paper-Based Survey Data Collection in Conservation Projects," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-8, May.
    3. David H. Peters & Abdo S. Yazbeck & Rashmi R. Sharma & G. N. V. Ramana & Lant H. Pritchett & Adam Wagstaff, 2002. "Better Health Systems for India's Poor : Findings, Analysis, and Options," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 14080.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leonard, David K. & Bloom, Gerald & Hanson, Kara & O’Farrell, Juan & Spicer, Neil, 2013. "Institutional Solutions to the Asymmetric Information Problem in Health and Development Services for the Poor," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 71-87.
    2. Sowmya Dhanaraj, 2014. "Health Shocks and Coping Strategies: State Health Insurance Scheme of Andhra Pradesh, India," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-003, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Dayashankar Maurya, 2019. "Understanding public health insurance in India: A design perspective," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 1633-1650, October.
    4. Lannes, Laurence, 2015. "Improving health worker performance: The patient-perspective from a PBF program in Rwanda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 1-11.
    5. Rama Pal, 2012. "Measuring incidence of catastrophic out-of-pocket health expenditure: with application to India," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 63-85, March.
    6. Alok Bhargava & Sadia Chowdhury & K. K. Singh, 2006. "Healthcare infrastructure, contraceptive use and infant mortality in Uttar Pradesh, India," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Econometrics, Statistics And Computational Approaches In Food And Health Sciences, chapter 23, pages 319-335, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Bonu, Sekhar & Rani, Manju & Jha, Prabhat & Peters, David H. & Nguyen, Son Nam, 2004. "Household tobacco and alcohol use, and child health: an exploratory study from India," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 67-83, October.
    8. Alvaro S Almeida, 2016. "The Role Of Private Non-Profit Healthcare Organizations In Nhs Systems: Implications For The Portuguese Hospital Devolution Program," FEP Working Papers 577, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    9. Sonia Bhalotra, 2007. "Spending to save? State health expenditure and infant mortality in India," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(9), pages 911-928, September.
    10. Davis, Jac & Magadzire, Nyasha & Hemerijckx, Lisa-Marie & Maes, Tijs & Durno, Darryn & Kenyana, Nobelusi & Lwasa, Shuaib & Van Rompaey, Anton & Verburg, Peter H. & May, Julian, 2022. "Precision approaches to food insecurity: A spatial analysis of urban hunger and its contextual correlates in an African city," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    11. Rama Pal, 2010. "Analysing Catastrophic OOP Health Expenditure in India: Concepts, Determinants and Policy Implications," Working Papers id:2420, eSocialSciences.
    12. Jay Dev Dubey, 2021. "Measuring Income Elasticity of Healthcare-Seeking Behavior in India: A Conditional Quantile Regression Approach," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 19(4), pages 767-793, December.
    13. Salem Deenadayalan Vaishnavi & Umakant Dash, 2009. "Catastrophic payments for health care among households in urban Tamil Nadu, India," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(2), pages 169-184.
    14. Kulbhushan Balooni & Kausik Gangopadhyay & Sudeep Turakhia & R.G. Karthik, 2012. "Challenges in the Sustainability of a Targeted Health Care Initiative in India," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 1(1), pages 21-32, January.
    15. Gotsadze, George & Zoidze, Akaki & Vasadze, Otar, 2005. "Reform strategies in Georgia and their impact on health care provision in rural areas: evidence from a household survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 809-821, February.
    16. Peters, David H. & Muraleedharan, V.R., 2008. "Regulating India's health services: To what end? What future?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 2133-2144, May.
    17. Johnson, A.F. & Kleiber, D. & Gomese, C. & Sukulu, M. & Saeni-Oeta, J. & Giron-Nava, A. & Cohen, P.J. & McDougall, C., 2021. "Assessing inclusion in community-based resource management: A framework and methodology," Monographs, The WorldFish Center, number 40982, April.
    18. Xiaolin Wei & Haitao Li & Nan Yang & Samuel Y S Wong & Onikepe Owolabi & Jianguang Xu & Leiyu Shi & Jinling Tang & Donald Li & Sian M Griffiths, 2015. "Comparing Quality of Public Primary Care between Hong Kong and Shanghai Using Validated Patient Assessment Tools," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-15, March.
    19. De Costa, Ayesha & Diwan, Vinod, 2007. "`Where is the public health sector?': Public and private sector healthcare provision in Madhya Pradesh, India," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(2-3), pages 269-276, December.
    20. Olivier, Jill & Wodon, Quentin, 2012. "Satisfaction with faith-inspired health care services in Africa: review and evidence from household surveys," MPRA Paper 45374, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0157831. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.