1South Asia CEO, Kantar Public
2Associate Professor, Jaypee Business School
Treatment of diseases entails different costs; both direct and indirect. These costs can be a deterrent to healthcare seeking leading to increased disease morbidity and mortality. This is especially so for diseases like diarrhea which is more prevalent among children from the lower economic strata. This can cause huge economic burden to a nation like India where a significant portion of the population is economically weak. Thus it is imperative that each element of the healthcare cost is well investigated and understood to formulate pragmatic health policies aimed at reducing the disease burden. This study is an attempt to quantify the treatment cost per episode of under 5 diarrhoea, one of the leading cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in India, by accounting for all direct and indirect elements in the household expenses incurred in treating an episode of the same.
Childhood diarrhea, child mortality, child morbidity, direct and indirect costs, private and government health facility
