Short but not Sweet : New Evidence on Short Duration Morbidities from India
India spends 6 percent of its GDP on health-three times the amount spent by Indonesia and twice that of China-and spending on non-chronic morbidities is three times that of chronic illnesses. It is normally assumed that the high spending on non-chr...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2003/02/2156912/short-not-sweet-new-evidence-short-duration-morbidities-india http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19121 |
| Summary: | India spends 6 percent of its GDP on
health-three times the amount spent by Indonesia and twice
that of China-and spending on non-chronic morbidities is
three times that of chronic illnesses. It is normally
assumed that the high spending on non-chronic illnesses
reflects the prevalence of morbidities with high
case-fatality or case-disability ratios. But there is little
data that can be used to separate out spending by type of
illness. The authors address this issue with a unique
dataset where 1,621 individuals in Delhi were observed for
16 weeks through detailed weekly interviews on morbidity and
health-seeking behavior. The authors' findings are
surprising and contrary to the normal view of health
spending. They define a new class of illnesses as
"short duration morbidities" if they are
classified as non-chronic in the international
classification of disease and are medically expected to last
less than two weeks. The authors show that short duration
morbidities are important in terms of prevalence,
practitioner visits, and household health expenditure:
Individuals report a short duration morbidity in one out of
every five weeks. Moreover, one out of every three weeks
reported with a short duration morbidity results in a doctor
visit, and each week sick with such a morbidity increases
health expenditure by 25 percent. Further, the absolute
spending on short duration morbidities is similar across
poor and rich income households. The authors discuss the
implications of these findings in understanding household
health behavior in an urban context, with special emphasis
on the role of information in health-seeking behavior. |
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