Economics of Health Care Utilisation: A Study of morbidity and health seeking behaviour in Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts of North Bengal

We have witnessed radical changes in infrastructure of health services and pattern of utilisation of care over the years in all parts of India. An enquiry into the fact would unveil some of the important alterations like introduction of user fees or more specifically hike in fees structure in the public health facilities, emergence of numerous private sources of care and growing preference for alternative systems of medicine among rural and urban mass. Important research questions at this point are that whether demand for public health facilities has decreased or whether pattern of morbidity has changed or whether people’s perception on illness has altered leading to a change in the appeal towards a particular type of care or system of medicine. The present study investigates such research questions empirically in the rural and urban areas of Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts of North Bengal. The study is based on primary data collected through interview technique. It has three facets: morbidity analysis, study of preference for a care, and multivariate analyses on utilisation of care comprising of logistic regression analysis and multiple classification analysis.