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We assessed the burden of cancer on households’ out-of-pocket health spending, non-medical consumption, workforce participation, and debt and asset sales using data from a nationally representative health and morbidity survey in India for 2004 of nearly 74 thousand households. Propensity scores were used to match households containing a member diagnosed with cancer (i.e. cancer-affected households) to households with similar socioeconomic and demographic characteristics (controls). Our estimates are based on data from 1,645 households chosen through matching. Cancer-affected households experienced higher levels of outpatient visits and hospital admissions and increased out-of-pocket health expenditures per member, relative to controls. Cancer-affected households spent between Indian Rupees (INR) 66 and INR 85 more per member on healthcare over a 15-day reference period, than controls and additional expenditures (per member) incurred on inpatient care by cancer-affected households annually is equivalent to 36% to 44% of annual household expenditures of matched controls. Members without cancer in cancer-affected households used less health-care and spent less on healthcare. Overall, adult workforce participation rates were lower by between 2.4 and 3.2 percentage points compared to controls; whereas workforce participation rates among adult members without cancer were higher than in control households. Cancer-affected households also had significantly higher rates of borrowing and asset sales for financing outpatient care that were 3.3% to 4.0% higher compared to control households; and even higher for inpatient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: India, with a population of more than 1.21 billion, has the highest maternal mortality in the world (estimated to be 56000 in 2010); and adolescent (aged 15–19) mortality shares 9% of total maternal deaths. Addressing the maternity care needs of adolescents may have considerable ramifications for achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG)–5. This paper assesses the socioeconomic differentials in accessing full antenatal care and professional attendance at delivery by adolescent mothers (aged 15–19) in India during 1990–2006. Methods and Findings: Data from three rounds of the National Family Health Survey of India conducted during 1992–93, 1998–99, and 2005–06 were analyzed. The Cochran-Armitage and Chi-squared test for linear and non-linear time trends were applied, respectively, to understand the trend in the proportion of adolescent mothers utilizing select maternity care services during 1990–2006. Using pooled multivariate logistic regression models, the probability of select maternal healthcare utilization among women by key socioeconomic characteristics was appraised. After adjusting for potential socio-demographic and economic characteristics, the likelihood of adolescents accessing full antenatal care increased by only 4% from 1990 to 2006. However, the probability of adolescent women availing themselves of professional attendance at delivery increased by 79% during the same period. The study also highlights the desolate disparities in maternity care services among adolescents across the most and the least favoured groups. Conclusion: Maternal care interventions in India need focused programs for rural, uneducated, poor adolescent women so that they can avail themselves of measures to delay child bearing, and for better antenatal consultation and delivery care in case of pregnancy. This study strongly advocates the promotion of a comprehensive ‘adolescent scheme’ along the lines of ‘Continuum of Maternal, Newborn and Child health Care’ to address the unmet need of reproductive and maternal healthcare services among adolescent women in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Whether non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are diseases of poverty or affluence in low-and-middle income countries has been vigorously debated. Most analyses of NCDs have used self-reported data, which is biased by differential access to healthcare services between groups of different socioeconomic status (SES). We sought to compare self-reported diagnoses versus standardised measures of NCD prevalence across SES groups in India. Methods: We calculated age-adjusted prevalence rates of common NCDs from the Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health, a nationally representative cross-sectional survey. We compared self-reported diagnoses to standardized measures of disease for five NCDs. We calculated wealth-related and education-related disparities in NCD prevalence by calculating concentration index (C), which ranges from −1 to +1 (concentration of disease among lower and higher SES groups, respectively). Findings: NCD prevalence was higher (range 5.2 to 19.1%) for standardised measures than self-reported diagnoses (range 3.1 to 9.4%). Several NCDs were particularly concentrated among higher SES groups according to self-reported diagnoses (Csrd) but were concentrated either among lower SES groups or showed no strong socioeconomic gradient using standardized measures (Csm): age-standardised wealth-related C: angina Csrd 0.02 vs. Csm −0.17; asthma and lung diseases Csrd −0.05 vs. Csm −0.04 (age-standardised education-related Csrd 0.04 vs. Csm −0.05); vision problems Csrd 0.07 vs. Csm −0.05; depression Csrd 0.07 vs. Csm −0.13. Indicating similar trends of standardized measures detecting more cases among low SES, concentration of hypertension declined among higher SES (Csrd 0.19 vs. Csm 0.03). Conclusions: The socio-economic patterning of NCD prevalence differs markedly when assessed by standardized criteria versus self-reported diagnoses. NCDs in India are not necessarily diseases of affluence but also of poverty, indicating likely under-diagnosis and under-reporting of diseases among the poor. Standardized measures should be used, wherever feasible, to estimate the true prevalence of NCDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The primary objective was to study the epidemiology of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) positive tribal patients, and the secondary objective was to study the associated comorbidities in a tertiary care hospital in the tribal (Bastar) region of Chhattisgarh, India, between December 2006 and November 2008, and their relation to CD4 counts. Materials and Methods: In this study 90 tribal HIV positive subjects were enrolled. Information on demographics, that is, weight, height, age, educational status, sex, clinical finding, and laboratory parameters (CD4 counts) were noted. Results: Among 90 HIV patients, 54 (60%) were males and 36 (40%) were females. Among these, most patients, 37 (41.1%), were in the age group of 30 to 39 years. Among these patients, 79.56% belonged to the lower socioeconomic status, whereas, only 1.45% were from a high socioeconomic status. The largest group was made up of drivers (32.2%), with the second largest group being housewives (27.7%) and laborers (17.7%), respectively. A majority of the patients had a low education, 35.5% were educated only up to the fifth standard and 31.8% up to high school, while 18.8% were illiterate. The predominant mode of transmission was heterosexual contact (78.8%), only one patient (1.1%) was infected through transfusion of infected blood, five (5.5%) patients acquired infection via vertical (mother to child) transmission, and in 13 patients the transmission history was not clear. Conclusion: There was a high frequency of behavioral risk factors, together with unawareness, and very little health infrastructure, thus creating an impending risk for the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]