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...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Das, Jishnu, Sánchez-Páramo, Carolina
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2014
Subjects:	HEALTH CARE; PUBLIC SPENDING; MORBIDITY; CHRONICALLY ILL CARE; FATALITIES; DISABILITY LEVEL; DATA COLLECTING; HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS; DISEASE BURDEN; MEDICAL CARE COSTS; HEALTH CARE COST CONTROL; INFORMATION MANAGEMENT ALLERGIES ANXIETY CHRONIC MORBIDITY DEMOGRAPHICS DIABETES DISPENSARIES DOCTORS ECONOMICS ECONOMICS OF HEALTH ECONOMIES OF SCALE EMPLOYMENT EXPENDITURES FAMILIES GENDER HEALTH BEHAVIOR HEALTH CARE HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS HEALTH COSTS HEALTH EXPENDITURE HEALTH EXPENDITURES HEALTH INSURANCE HEALTH OUTCOMES HEALTH SERVICES HEALTH STATUS HOMES HOSPITAL CARE HOSPITALS HOUSEHOLDS INCOME INCOME LEVELS INFORMAL SECTOR INJURIES LABOR FORCE LABOR SUPPLY LEPROSY LIVING CONDITIONS LIVING STANDARDS LOW INCOME MALARIA MEDICAL CARE MEDICINES MORBIDITY NEIGHBORHOODS OUTPATIENT CARE PHARMACIES PHARMACY POLICY RESEARCH POLLUTION POLLUTION LEVELS PRIMARY CARE PRIVATE SECTOR PROBABILITY PUBLIC HEALTH PUBLIC SECTOR QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE RESEARCH AGENDA SCALE ECONOMIES SCHOOLS WALKING
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

id	okr-10986-19121
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-191212021-04-23T14:03:42Z Short but not Sweet : New Evidence on Short Duration Morbidities from India Das, Jishnu Sánchez-Páramo, Carolina HEALTH CARE; PUBLIC SPENDING; MORBIDITY; CHRONICALLY ILL CARE; FATALITIES; DISABILITY LEVEL; DATA COLLECTING; HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS; DISEASE BURDEN; MEDICAL CARE COSTS; HEALTH CARE COST CONTROL; INFORMATION MANAGEMENT ALLERGIES ANXIETY CHRONIC MORBIDITY DEMOGRAPHICS DIABETES DISPENSARIES DOCTORS ECONOMICS ECONOMICS OF HEALTH ECONOMIES OF SCALE EMPLOYMENT EXPENDITURES FAMILIES GENDER HEALTH BEHAVIOR HEALTH CARE HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS HEALTH COSTS HEALTH EXPENDITURE HEALTH EXPENDITURES HEALTH INSURANCE HEALTH OUTCOMES HEALTH SERVICES HEALTH STATUS HOMES HOSPITAL CARE HOSPITALS HOUSEHOLDS INCOME INCOME LEVELS INFORMAL SECTOR INJURIES LABOR FORCE LABOR SUPPLY LEPROSY LIVING CONDITIONS LIVING STANDARDS LOW INCOME MALARIA MEDICAL CARE MEDICINES MORBIDITY NEIGHBORHOODS OUTPATIENT CARE PHARMACIES PHARMACY POLICY RESEARCH POLLUTION POLLUTION LEVELS PRIMARY CARE PRIVATE SECTOR PROBABILITY PUBLIC HEALTH PUBLIC SECTOR QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE RESEARCH AGENDA SCALE ECONOMIES SCHOOLS WALKING 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. 2014-07-31T16:47:25Z 2014-07-31T16:47:25Z 2003-02 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2003/02/2156912/short-not-sweet-new-evidence-short-duration-morbidities-india http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19121 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2971 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research South Asia India
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	HEALTH CARE; PUBLIC SPENDING; MORBIDITY; CHRONICALLY ILL CARE; FATALITIES; DISABILITY LEVEL; DATA COLLECTING; HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS; DISEASE BURDEN; MEDICAL CARE COSTS; HEALTH CARE COST CONTROL; INFORMATION MANAGEMENT ALLERGIES ANXIETY CHRONIC MORBIDITY DEMOGRAPHICS DIABETES DISPENSARIES DOCTORS ECONOMICS ECONOMICS OF HEALTH ECONOMIES OF SCALE EMPLOYMENT EXPENDITURES FAMILIES GENDER HEALTH BEHAVIOR HEALTH CARE HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS HEALTH COSTS HEALTH EXPENDITURE HEALTH EXPENDITURES HEALTH INSURANCE HEALTH OUTCOMES HEALTH SERVICES HEALTH STATUS HOMES HOSPITAL CARE HOSPITALS HOUSEHOLDS INCOME INCOME LEVELS INFORMAL SECTOR INJURIES LABOR FORCE LABOR SUPPLY LEPROSY LIVING CONDITIONS LIVING STANDARDS LOW INCOME MALARIA MEDICAL CARE MEDICINES MORBIDITY NEIGHBORHOODS OUTPATIENT CARE PHARMACIES PHARMACY POLICY RESEARCH POLLUTION POLLUTION LEVELS PRIMARY CARE PRIVATE SECTOR PROBABILITY PUBLIC HEALTH PUBLIC SECTOR QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE RESEARCH AGENDA SCALE ECONOMIES SCHOOLS WALKING
spellingShingle	HEALTH CARE; PUBLIC SPENDING; MORBIDITY; CHRONICALLY ILL CARE; FATALITIES; DISABILITY LEVEL; DATA COLLECTING; HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS; DISEASE BURDEN; MEDICAL CARE COSTS; HEALTH CARE COST CONTROL; INFORMATION MANAGEMENT ALLERGIES ANXIETY CHRONIC MORBIDITY DEMOGRAPHICS DIABETES DISPENSARIES DOCTORS ECONOMICS ECONOMICS OF HEALTH ECONOMIES OF SCALE EMPLOYMENT EXPENDITURES FAMILIES GENDER HEALTH BEHAVIOR HEALTH CARE HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS HEALTH COSTS HEALTH EXPENDITURE HEALTH EXPENDITURES HEALTH INSURANCE HEALTH OUTCOMES HEALTH SERVICES HEALTH STATUS HOMES HOSPITAL CARE HOSPITALS HOUSEHOLDS INCOME INCOME LEVELS INFORMAL SECTOR INJURIES LABOR FORCE LABOR SUPPLY LEPROSY LIVING CONDITIONS LIVING STANDARDS LOW INCOME MALARIA MEDICAL CARE MEDICINES MORBIDITY NEIGHBORHOODS OUTPATIENT CARE PHARMACIES PHARMACY POLICY RESEARCH POLLUTION POLLUTION LEVELS PRIMARY CARE PRIVATE SECTOR PROBABILITY PUBLIC HEALTH PUBLIC SECTOR QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE RESEARCH AGENDA SCALE ECONOMIES SCHOOLS WALKING Das, Jishnu Sánchez-Páramo, Carolina Short but not Sweet : New Evidence on Short Duration Morbidities from India
geographic_facet	South Asia India
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2971
description	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.
format	Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
author	Das, Jishnu Sánchez-Páramo, Carolina
author_facet	Das, Jishnu Sánchez-Páramo, Carolina
author_sort	Das, Jishnu
title	Short but not Sweet : New Evidence on Short Duration Morbidities from India
title_short	Short but not Sweet : New Evidence on Short Duration Morbidities from India
title_full	Short but not Sweet : New Evidence on Short Duration Morbidities from India
title_fullStr	Short but not Sweet : New Evidence on Short Duration Morbidities from India
title_full_unstemmed	Short but not Sweet : New Evidence on Short Duration Morbidities from India
title_sort	short but not sweet : new evidence on short duration morbidities from india
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2014
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2003/02/2156912/short-not-sweet-new-evidence-short-duration-morbidities-india http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19121
_version_	1764439197860495360

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

Similar Items