Correlates of inpatient healthcare seeking behavior in India

The present study was attempted to study the in-patient health care behaviour, particularly choice of health care providers and their determinants.

An analysis for treatment seeking behavior of 5989 inpatients which implied to 6726 hospitalized cases due to five ailments namely, heart, diarrhea, tuberculosis, urinary and gynecology diseases in India during the last 365 days prior to survey date has been revealed in this paper using data from the 60th round of National Sample Survey, 2004. Multivariate logistic regression model has been adopted to understand the correlates of being inpatients and of opting private hospitals.

It is evident that crowded household, being female, having higher educational level, living in lower income households, and living in urban residents have lower chances of being hospitalized compared to their respective counterparts. Maximum people opted for expensive private health sector which accounts for around 59 per cent. This study also reveals that many people had some form of treatment before being an inpatient where 59 per cent had past treatment.

Patients from the highest quintile of MPCE have higher chances of being hospitalized and also of choosing costly private health care sector. Significant differences were found within age, sex, education, residence and monthly per capita consumption expenditure for hospitalization. Older age groups, highly educated and urban patients have higher instances of choosing a private sector.