Regional inequalities in the risk of diseases and associated risk factors in India: Evidence from a large scale sample survey

Background: Inequalities in diseases act as a brake on economic development. Extant literature is full of studies on regional inequalities in maternal and child health in India, but studies examining regional inequalities in the occurrence of diseases are limited.
Objective: Data from India Human Development Survey conducted in 2004-05 is used to test hypotheses: first, diseases are uniformly distributed among all regions of India; and second, there is no regional variation in the occurrence of risk factors.
Methods: The present study had measured six outcome variables namely occurrence of TB, mental illness, cancer, diabetes, high BP and heart disease. The other outcome variables were risk factors like smoking, chewing tobacco, alcohol drinking and living in crowding condition. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used.
Results: Findings of the study reject the both hypothesis. There are enormous regional inequalities in the occurrence of diseases. Interestingly there is no single pattern in the occurrence of diseases among regions. Some diseases have a high prevalence in a particular region, but other disease has a very low prevalence in that particular region.