Emerging patterns of reported morbidity and hospitalisation in West Bengal, India

Abstract

This paper presents evidence on the levels, patterns and determinants of morbidity prevalence and hospitalisation in the state of West Bengal in India using data from the 60th round (2004) of the National Sample Survey Organisation on 'morbidity and health care'. The reported morbidity and hospitalisation rates were considerably higher in urban than in rural populations. Age indicated substantial effects on morbidity and hospitalisation in both rural and urban areas, with females reporting higher morbidity than males in urban areas. Caste, region and seasonal differences in morbidity prevalence were found significant only in rural areas, but socio-economic inequalities in the prevalence of morbidity and hospitalisation were lower in urban areas. Morbidity and hospitalisation rates were more strongly related with household monthly per capita expenditure than to educational attainment. The distribution of ailments suggest that West Bengal is passing through the advanced phase of epidemiologic transition in which communicable diseases are being swiftly replaced with rising levels of non-communicable diseases.

Changes in levels of morbidity and hospitalisation in Kerala: A district level analysis (1995–2014)

“…8 A higher prevalence of NCDs, CVDs, and infectious disease may also be partly because of the presence of a larger percentage of old age population in Kerala. 15,16 The diminishing pattern of another type of morbidities may be a result of progress in the grouping of morbidities in the continuous round in light of the fact that, less number of morbidities was incorporated into other morbidity classification in the ongoing round when contrasted with the past rounds of NSS. Also, there is an increasing trend in infectious diseases in both rural and urban areas, signaling a serious worry for better sanitation, awareness and healthcare provisions.…”

“…18,19 Studies suggest that accessibility to health services, health ideals, nutritional status, domestic violence, education levels, socioeconomic status, lifestyle of the population are mostly the explanations for variations in self-reported morbidity. 11,16,20,21 The people of higher-economic status and educated elderly might be more mindful of medical problems and accordingly be generally less inclined to underreport minor medical issues or intense sicknesses than their counterparts in a poorer economic situation. 5,22,28 Also the lifestyle-related nature of chronic conditions may have added to the higher prevalence of chronic ailments, resulting in a higher burden of morbidity and hospitalization among the better-off subgroups.…”

“…25 It is a well-known fact that diarrhea alone accounts for the highest number of deaths among infants followed by acute respiratory infection. 8 Other infectious diseases with a high percentage of hospitalization are for gastric and peptic ulcers which are found to be higher among young (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29) and prior elderly groups (45-59) in urban areas. 27 Furthermore, Tuberculosis also accounts for a high percentage across ages in both the rural and urban areas.…”

“…Also, there was a change in classification of the types of morbidities from 1995-2014. 8,16 Despite these limitations, the morbidity transition and hospitalization issues are useful to understand the present condition of morbidity in Kerala for policy formulation plans on different types of diseases.…”

Health transition in India: does data on causes of death reveal trends, patterns and determinants?

“…As a consequent to differences in exposure, life-style, and utilization of and access to health care services, socio-economic differentials exist not only in overall mortality but also in the risk of dying from specific causes (Rosenberg and Curtin, 1986;Kitagawa and Hauser, 1973;Agrawal and Arokiasamy, 2009;Ghosh and Arokiasamy, 2010). Evidence suggest that there are diseases of the well-to-do and diseases of the poor.…”