Short but not Sweet : New Evidence on Short Duration Morbidities from India

Das, Jishnu ; Sá ; nchez-Pá ; ramo, Carolina

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: HEALTH CARE;    PUBLIC SPENDING;    MORBIDITY;    CHRONICALLY ILL CARE;    FATALITIES;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2971
RP-ID  :  WPS2971

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

India spends 6 percent of its GDP onhealth-three times the amount spent by Indonesia and twicethat of China-and spending on non-chronic morbidities isthree times that of chronic illnesses. It is normallyassumed that the high spending on non-chronic illnessesreflects the prevalence of morbidities with highcase-fatality or case-disability ratios. But there is littledata that can be used to separate out spending by type ofillness. The authors address this issue with a uniquedataset where 1,621 individuals in Delhi were observed for16 weeks through detailed weekly interviews on morbidity andhealth-seeking behavior. The authors' findings aresurprising and contrary to the normal view of healthspending. They define a new class of illnesses as"short duration morbidities" if they areclassified as non-chronic in the internationalclassification of disease and are medically expected to lastless than two weeks. The authors show that short durationmorbidities are important in terms of prevalence,practitioner visits, and household health expenditure:Individuals report a short duration morbidity in one out ofevery five weeks. Moreover, one out of every three weeksreported with a short duration morbidity results in a doctorvisit, and each week sick with such a morbidity increaseshealth expenditure by 25 percent. Further, the absolutespending on short duration morbidities is similar acrosspoor and rich income households. The authors discuss theimplications of these findings in understanding householdhealth behavior in an urban context, with special emphasison the role of information in health-seeking behavior.