Lower socio-economic status households travel further for care
A study published earlier this week has found that low socio-economic groups in rural India travel further to access high-quality healthcare. The study, which was published in a special issue of the Health Affairs Journal, was funded by the Global Health Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and conducted with the Center for Policy Research, New Delhi and the Institute for Socioeconomic Research on Democracy and Development in Delhi.
Findings show that where people live matters more than who they are. The study found that within the study population, which is mainly poor and illiterate, households can assess the quality of healthcare providers and actively seek out those of a higher quality, and that when patients travel further, they access higher quality care. Additionally, households of a lower socio-economic status were found to have to travel further than those of a higher socio-economic status in order to access the same quality of care.