Non-utilization of public healthcare facilities during sickness: a national study in India
Bagchi T. Das A. Dawad S. Dalal K.
April 2022Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Journal of Public Health (Germany)
2022#30Issue 4943 - 951 pp.
Aims: Healthcare utilization is a major challenge for low- and middle-income countries, especially for the publicly funded facilities. The study has tried to explore the women’s opinion behind the non-utilization of public healthcare facilities in India. Subjects and methods: This was a cross-sectional study using nationally representative samples of 351,625 women of reproductive age (15–49 years) from the 29 States and seven Union Territories. Indian National Family Health Surveys NFHS-4 (2015–2016) was the data source. The respondents were asked why the members of their households do not utilize public healthcare facilities when members of their households are sick. They have options to respond either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Five reasons for non-utilization of public healthcare were asked: (i) ‘there is no nearby facility’; (ii) ‘facility timing is not convenient’; (iii) ‘health personnel are often absent’; (iv) ‘waiting time is too long’; and (v) ‘poor quality of care’. Results: The majority of the women in India (88%) said that their family members did not use public healthcare facilities. The reasons behind this were no nearby facilities (42.4%), inconvenient facility timing (29.6%), poor quality of care (52.3%), health personnel often absent (16.8%) and long waiting time (39.9%). Conclusions: importantly, during the last 10 years, the utilization of public health care facilities has dropped significantly, which should be taken seriously as the Indian Parliament has been placing emphasis on equity.
Barrier , Health care utilization , India , Public facilities , Women
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West Bengal State Consultant (NTCP), West Bengal, Kolkata, India
Nadia District Consultant (NTCP), West Bengal, Krishnanagar, India
Partnership Framework Implementation Plan, National Department of Health, Pretoria, South Africa
School of Health Sciences, Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden
Faculty of Medicine and Health Care, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan
West Bengal State Consultant (NTCP)
Nadia District Consultant (NTCP)
Partnership Framework Implementation Plan
School of Health Sciences
Faculty of Medicine and Health Care
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026