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Reassessing the gender differences in type and place of health care utilisation in India: does the gender gap no longer exist?

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 30 January 2018

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Abstract

Purpose

Two of the crucial components of health care service utilisation are the type of health care services received (government, private, others) and the place visited (same village, another village, another district/town, a metro city, abroad, etc.). The association between health care facilities and gender is important for understanding the disparities between males and females. Thus, the primary objective of this study was to reassess the gender differences in the type and place of health care utilisation.

Methods

Data from the second round of the India Human Development Survey (2011–2012) were used for this study. Analysis was done using both bi- and multivariate techniques (multinomial logistic regression).

Results

Results indicate an improvement in the female health care-seeking behaviour. We found that females have a higher tendency to visit private health care centres, whereas a higher percentage of males used government health care services for the treatment of both long- and short-term morbidities. Males and females reported visiting health care centres within the village, in another village, in another district/town and in a metro area/abroad for treatment approximately to the same extent.

Conclusion

The analysis of the male and female treatment-seeking behaviour revealed a clear picture of proliferating gender neutrality. The increase in the health care-seeking behaviour of women can be considered an upshot of improved female education and increased awareness among males regarding female empowerment. Government interventions in different sectors have also improved the plight of women directly or indirectly.

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Change history

  • 30 January 2018

    The journal had been advised to revise the title so that Clarivate Analytics can try to count the citations more accurately. There’s been confusion due to the existence of another journal with the same name.

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Funding

This research received no grants from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Govandi Station Road, Deonar, Mumbai, 400088, India

    Anshul Kastor & Kumar Parimal Shrestha

Authors
  1. Anshul Kastor
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  2. Kumar Parimal Shrestha
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anshul Kastor.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

The study used a data set that is available online in the public domain; hence, there was no need to seek ethical consent to publish this study.

Additional information

The original version of this article was revised: Due to the existence of another journal with the same name, the Publisher has added a subtitle, “From Theory to Practice.” Effective as of January 2018, the new title of this Journal is Journal of Public Health: From Theory to Practice.

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Kastor, A., Shrestha, K.P. Reassessing the gender differences in type and place of health care utilisation in India: does the gender gap no longer exist?. J Public Health 26, 361–371 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-017-0862-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-017-0862-8

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