Direct and Indirect Cost of Treatment of Early Childhood Morbidities

Millennium Development Goals has also targeted to reduce the Infant Mortality Rate by 30 per 1000 live births and improve the child health. In India, Infant Mortality has declined substantially during the last decade but at the same time, a large number of children suffer from various early childhood morbidities. Child health is a major public-health challenge and social-welfare problem. Using the data from 60th round of NSS, this paper tries to examine the prevalence of childhood morbidity among children in the age group 0-4 years and their sought treatment. The household economic burden in the treatment of these diseases was assessed by calculating various direct and indirect costs.
The results indicate that the incidence of hospitalization was higher among male child, compared to female child. Diarrhea/Dysentery and Respiratory including ear/nose/throat was the most common problem for which children took treatment both as inpatient and outpatient and about three fourth children had sought treatment from private hospitals.