Health care seeking behaviour and financial protection of patients with hypertension: A cross-sectional study in rural West Bengal, India

BACKGROUND: Elevated blood pressure or hypertension is responsible for around 10 million annual deaths globally, and people residing in low and middle-income countries are disproportionately affected by it. India is no exception, where low rate of treatment seeking for hypertension coupled with widespread out-of-pocket payments (OOPs) have been a challenge. This study assessed the pattern of health care seeking behaviour and financial protection along with the associated factors among hypertensive individuals in rural West Bengal, India. METHOD AND FINDINGS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Birbhum district of the state of West Bengal, India, during 2017–2018, where 300 individuals were recruited randomly from a list of hypertensives in a population cohort. Healthcare seeking for hypertension and related financial protection in terms of–OOPs and expenses relative to monthly per-capita family expenditure, were analysed. Findings indicated that 47% of hypertensives were not on treatment. Among those under treatment, 80% preferred non-public facilities, and 91% of them had wide-spread OOPs. Cost of medication was a major share of expenses followed by transportation cost to access public health care facility. Multivariable logistic regression analysis indicated longer duration of disease (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 5.68, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.24–25.99) and health care seeking from non-public establishment (aOR: 34.33, CI: 4.82–244.68) were associated with more incident of OOPs. Linear regression with generalized linear model revealed presence of co-morbidities (adjusted coefficient (aCoeff)10.28, CI: 4.96,15.61) and poorer economic groups (aCoeff(poorest) 11.27, CI 3.82,18.71; aCoeff(lower-middle) 7.83, CI 0.65,15.00 and aCoeff(upper-middle) 7.25, CI: 0.80,13.70) had higher relative expenditure. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that individuals with hypertension had poor health care seeking behaviour, preferred non-public health facilities and had suboptimal financial protection. Economically poorer individuals had higher burden of health expenditure for treatment of hypertension, which indicated gaps in equitable health care delivery for the control of hypertension.