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Socioeconomic Status and Health Inequalities in Urban Area:A Case Study of Delhi
Objective: This study throws light on the important question, whether there are profound intergroup differences in health status and utilization of healthcare in urban areas. This study mainly focuses on economic burden on different socioeconomic groups due to healthcare expenditure in Delhi.
Method/Statistical Analysis: For the study purpose we have used secondary data conducted by NSSO during 71st round in 2014. The number of households, in Delhi, taken for the study is 1158, and the population is 5424.In order to attain the objectives of study, we use both exploratory and descriptive study methods. The exploratory study will be used to investigate the problems and the variables more clearly, which will help us produce ideas and thoughts about the objectives covered in the study. On the other hand, the descriptive method will determine the impact of socioeconomic status on the health status of people. To find the variance in health care expenditure done by different socioeconomic group we have used the ANNOVA model.
Findings: From the study, it is found that the people with low socioeconomic status experience catastrophic out of pocket expenditure on healthcare and a large proportion of the population face impoverishment because of the economic burden of out of pocket healthcare expenditure they incurred. The maximum expenditure is done on outpatient care. Correlation between reporting prevalence of diseases and standard of living exists because the poorest persons have reported the prevalence of chronic diseases more than richest persons in rest of the reference cities. Besides the socioeconomic status, the adequate quality of healthcare services is a need of all people whether the service is utilized more or less.
Application/Improvement: Findings of the study is can be considered as a witness that the improvement of health status is possible rapidly when we embrace comprehensive insights of socioeconomic inequalities and terminate these inequalities.
Keywords
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