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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : May 13, 2016 3:46 PM IST
Medication related expenses are a large part of health expenditures in many low and middle income countries. University of Chicago did a study on the financial burden due to expenditures on medications for cardiovascular diseases (Hypertension, Hyperlipidemia, and Coronary Heart Disease) in India. The findings suggest that these medications despite being essential life saviours, are not affordable to millions of Indian peoplewho may need them and are responsible for causing significant financial burden and impoverishment. Here are few more risk factors of heart disease
As many as 170 million people in India 93 million of the rural and 76 million of the urban adult population may benefit from cardiovascular medications. Out of the 170 million people who may benefit from cardiovascular medications, as many as 45 million rural and 30 million urban Indians could find these medications unaffordable if they wanted to buy them. As many as 17 million rural and 10 million urban people could be pushed below the current poverty line by purchasing these medications out of pocket. These figures represent an increase in baseline poverty levels by 2 percentage points (from 31%) for rural India and 3.2 percentage points (from 27%) for urban India. If only 75% of the 170 million people who need these medicines were to buy them out of pocket, as is the current share of out of pocket health expenditures in India, as many as 34 million rural Indians and 22 million urban Indians could find these medicines unaffordable with resulting impoverishment of 13 million rural Indians and 7 million urban Indians. Read more about Heart disease in India 6 shocking facts you should know
The study was undertaken by Professor Kiran Pandey and Professor David Meltzer. The findings are part of the larger study on Financial Burden and Impoverishment due to Cardiovascular Medications in Low and Middle Income Countries: an Illustration from India. The study was done using National Sample Survey (NSS), in the year 2011-2012 and the data was collected from all over India. Here are 10 simple tips to prevent heart disease
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Image source: Getty images (Image for representational purpose only)
