Treatment and rehabilitation of stroke patients in India: A gendered analysis based on repeated cross-sectional national sample surveys on health, 2014 and 2019

Abstract

We attempt a gendered inspection of sex differentials in care following stroke in India using data from two rounds of NSSO. While almost all men and women receive allopathic care, a higher percentage of women (51.8%) were treated in public hospitals compared to men (32.6%) in 2014 and 2017–18 (45.8% vs 41.4%). Men were preponderantly treated in private hospitals (67.4%) compared to women (48.2%) in 2014 and 2017–18 (58.6% vs 54.2%). We provide evidence that for rehabilitation, at the highest decile for expenditure, men spend more than women. This preliminary exploration is indicative of a gendered dimension in care-seeking for stroke.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the organizers of the workshop “Gender Analysis of Health: Workshop for Researchers using Large Scale Data Sets” held at International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai between October 10 and 15, 2019. We are also grateful to the resources persons and mentors for their insights on viewing health issues and policy from a gender lens and their valuable inputs in conceptualizing the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.