Indian Journal of Community Health
Volume 31, Issue 3, 2019

Documenting catastrophic spending on health by migrant slum population (Article)

Mehnaz S. , Abedi A.J.* , Fazli S.F. , Mushfiq S. , Khan Z. , Ansari M.A.
  • a Department of Community Medicine, JN Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, India
  • b Department of Community Medicine, JN Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, India
  • c Department of Sociology, Aligarh Muslim University, India
  • d Department of Public Health, college of Applied Medical Sciences, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia
  • e Department of Community Medicine, JN Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, India
  • f Department of Community Medicine, JN Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, India

Abstract

Background: India ranks among the bottom five countries in public health spending. Out of pocket spending of households on healthcare is almost 70% of income and reimbursement in any form availed by households whose members are employed in the formal sector is negligible. Objectives: To determine the usual source of medical care opted for by the study population. To find out the illness pattern and its age/sex distribution in the study population. To find out the expenditure incurred on illness and its source of procurement by the study population. Methodology: 52.42% urban Aligarh resides in slums. A cross sectional study was done to study the newer slum pockets. 3409 households with a population of 16,978 were studied with the help of pretested questionnaire; SPSS 20 was used for statistical analysis. Results: In our study, we found that almost all the households suffered from catastrophic health expenditure. The study population, which was already vulnerable owing to their low socio-economic and migrant status was further forced into poverty and indebtedness on account of expenditure on illness. Conclusions: National health financing systems should be designed to protect households from financial catastrophe, by reducing out-of-pocket spending. © 2019, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine. All rights reserved.

Author Keywords

New urban slums Out of pocket expenditure Catastrophic health expenditure

Index Keywords

male female household data analysis software questionnaire disaster financial management Article poverty sex ratio human experiment human cross-sectional study migrant public health

Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85075649208&partnerID=40&md5=bb51fbacfdd852f86cbb11671174323f

ISSN: 09717587
Original Language: English