A study to assess catastrophic household expenditure on childhood illness in an urban slum in bijapur.
OBJECTIVE
In this study, the various factors determining the out-of-pocket expenditure on child health care by households are discussed to answer the following questions: How much are households currently spending on child health care? Is there any role of socio-economic status of households on expenditure on child health care? What percentage of their income is spent on child health care and is it catastrophic?


METHODS
Four slums with a total a population of 7000 were selected for this study. Households where there is history of illness/ sickness in children under 5 years in last one month were included in the study.


RESULTS
There were a total of 218 episodes of child illness in the households. The household's belonging to socio- economic class I and II had higher spending on child's illness per episode as compared to households of socio- economic class III, IV, and V. Socioeconomic status was the key determinant of health care expenditure.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, it has been found that almost all the households suffered from catastrophic health expenditure.
Patil
Shailaja Sharabasappa
SS
Department of Community Medicine, Shri B M Patil Medical College, Bijapur, Karnataka, India.
Berad
Aditya Suryabhan
AS
Angadi
Mahabaleshwar Mahantappa
MM