Out-of-Pocket Payments for Delivery Care in India: Do Households face Hardship Financing?

Background: Present study aims to examine the socioeconomic and demographic factors that affect health care utilization, health care expenditure and financing strategies for delivery care in India. Methods: The study uses data from National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), 2015-2016. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate regression analysis were carried out to examine health care utilization, out of pocket expenditure and financing strategies for delivery care in India. We used hardship financing as when people resort to borrowings, or sale of property/jewelry to pay for healthcare expenditure Results: Overall, Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) could cover less than 40% of the delivery care expenditure across all states. One-third of the households borrowed money or sold property/jewelry for delivery care expenditure. Highest exposure to hardship financing was observed in utilisation of private healthcare facilities for delivery. Women from the higher income quintiles are less likely to experience hardship financing as compared to women from the poorest wealth quintile. Conclusions: The study results will be useful for government to ensure that financing policies for delivery such as JSY are effective to provide availability and affordability of delivery healthcare in India.

Does distance from a clinic and poverty impact visit adherence for noncommunicable diseases? A retrospective cohort study using electronic medical records in rural Haiti

Background Adherence to regular outpatient visits is vital to managing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), a growing burden in low and middle-income countries. We characterized visit adherence among patients with NCDs in rural Haiti, hypothesizing higher poverty and distance from the clinic were associated with lower adherence. Methods We analyzed electronic medical records from a cohort of adults in an NCD clinic in Mirebalais, Haiti (April 2013 to June 2016). Visit adherence was: 1) visit constancy (≥1 visit every 3 months), 2) no gaps in care (> 60 days between visits), 3) ≥1 visit in the last quarter, and 4) ≥6 visits per year. We incorporated an adapted measure of intensity of multidimensional poverty. We calculated distance from clinic as Euclidean distance or self-reported transit time. We used multivariable logistic regressions to assess the association between poverty, distance, and visit adherence. Results We included 463 adult patients, mean age 57.8 years (SE 2.2), and 72.4% women. Over half of patients had at least one visit per quarter (58.1%), but a minority (19.6%) had no gaps between visits. Seventy percent of patients had a visit in the last quarter, and 73.9% made at least 6 visits per year. Only 9.9% of patients met all adherence criteria. In regression models, poverty was not associated with any adherence measures, and distance was only associated with visit in the last quarter (OR 0.87, 95% CI [0.78 to 0.98], p = 0.03) after adjusting for age, sex, and hardship financing. Conclusions Visit adherence was low in this sample of adult patients presenting to a NCD Clinic in Haiti. Multidimensional poverty and distance from clinic were not associated with visit adherence measures among patients seen in the clinic, except for visit in the last quarter. Future research should focus on identifying and addressing barriers to visit adherence.