More people sick in urban areas than rural areas: NSSO Survey

The number of people reporting sick is more in urban India compared to rural areas, whereas the un-treated spell is more in rural India, a NSSO survey said on Tuesday.

"A Health Survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) has indicated that during a 15 day reference period 89 per 1,000 persons reported illness in rural India against 118 persons-Proportion (per 1,000) of

Ailing Persons (PAP) in urban areas," an official statement.

However, the un-treated spell was higher in rural (both for male and female) than urban areas. Private doctors were the most important single source of treatment in both the areas, it added.

"More than 70% (72% in rural areas and 79% in the urban areas) spells of ailment were treated in the private sector. Inclination towards allopathic treatment was prevalent (around 90% in both the sectors)," the statement said.

NSSO under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has released key indicators of the' Social Consumption in India: Health', generated from data collected during the period January to June 2014 in its 71st round survey.

The survey on Social Consumption: Health conducted during the period January to June 2014 aimed at generating basic quantitative information on the health sector.

The key indicators are based on Central sample consisting of 4,577 villages in rural areas and 3,720 urban blocks spread over all States and Union Territories of India.

The information was collected through a schedule (25.0) from a set of sample households during the period January to June 2014. The total number of households in which Schedule was canvassed, was 36,480 in rural India and 29,452 in urban India.

Medical treatment of an ailing person as an in-patient in any medical institution having provision for treating the sick as in-patients, was considered as hospitalised treatment.

In the urban population, 4.4% of the persons were hospitalised at some time during a reference period of 365 days. The proportion of persons hospitalised in rural areas was lower (3.5%).

It is observed that in rural India, 42% hospitalised treatment was carried out in public hospital and rest 58% in private hospital. For the urban India, the corresponding figures were 32% and 68%.

Higher amount was spent for treatment per hospitalised case by people in the private hospitals (Rs 25,850) than in the public hospitals (Rs 6,120). The highest expenditure was recorded for treatment of Cancer (Rs 56,712) followed by that for Cardio-vascular diseases (Rs 31,647). 

Average medical expenditure per non-hospitalisation case was Rs 509 in rural India and Rs 639 in urban India.

As much as 86% of rural population and 82% of urban population were still not covered under any scheme of health expenditure support.

Government, however, was able to bring about 12% urban and 13% rural population under health protection coverage through Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) or similar plan.

Only 12% households of the 5th quintile class (Usual Monthly Per Capita Consumer Expenditure) of urban area had some arrangement of medical insurance from private provider.

In rural area 9.6% of the women (age 15-49) were pregnant at any time during the reference period of 365 days and for urban this proportion was 6.8%.

Evidence of interrelation of place of childbirth with level of living is noted both in rural and urban areas. In the rural areas, about 20% of the childbirths were at home or any other place other than the hospitals. The same for urban areas was 10.5%.

Among the institutional childbirth, 55.5% took place in public hospital and 24% in private hospital in rural area. In urban area, however, the corresponding figures were 42% and 47.5% respectively.

An average of Rs 5,544 was spent per childbirth (as inpatient) in rural area and Rs 11,685 in urban area.

The rural population spent, on an average, Rs 1,587 for the same in a public sector hospital and Rs 14,778 for one in a private sector hospital. The corresponding figures for urban India were Rs 2,117 and Rs 20,328.