Out of pocket expenditure of neonatal illnesses and health seeking behaviour of care-givers of sick newborns in Burdwan Municipality of West Bengal: A community based cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: The neonatal period is very important for survival of every infant. As neonatal period is vulnerable to various diseases; people have to pay a lot as a part of out of pocket (OOP) expenditure. It is part of the private health expenditure and it includes service user fees, consultation fees, health insurance contributions, drug costs and cost of laboratory tests. Every household is forced to sacrifice basic needs and sell productive assets, incur debt or become improvised if OOP expenditure crosses a threshold level.Objectives: This study was undertaken to find out socio-demographic profile, care seeking behaviour and out of pocket expenditure of the care-givers according to morbidity pattern of newborns in Burdwan municipality of West Bengal, India.Material and Methods: It is a community based cross-sectional study done at Burdwan municipality. Study tools include interview and record review. Sample size was found to be 200.Multi stage sampling technique was used.Results: In this study 59.1% of the newborns developed any kind of illness for that care is sought. Mean out of pocket expenditure was found to be 418 INR (n=l98). The mean expenses for jaundice, URTI and umbilical discharge were 634 INR,416 INR and 420 INR respectively. In this study, it was found that neonatal illness and care seeking behaviour was associated with education of the care givers and socio-economic status of the family.Conclusion: It may be concluded that, more than half of the babies suffered from morbidity during neonatal period. The cost of management was high, especially in private health care.