Health insurance coverage and its associated factors amongst households of an urban village in Delhi.

Abstract

Urban poor households mostly comprising of migrants from small towns and villages are prone to residing in overcrowded, unplanned settlements, bearing a higher risk of healthcare ailments and expenditure. There is a need to assess health insurance amongst them to better understand insurance coverage, as well as their experience and attitude towards it. To find out the prevalence of health insurance and its associated factors amongst households of an urban village in Delhi. A cross-sectional study amongst households that have been residing for the last year in an urban village of Delhi. This 18-month duration study was carried out in an urban village of Delhi, where a sample size of 188 was calculated based on a study conducted in Dakshina Kannada, and households were selected using systematic random sampling. A pre-designed, pre-tested, semi-structured, and interviewer-administered questionnaire was used in Hindi to elicit and record relevant information. Data was recorded and coded in MS Excel, and analysis was done using licensed IBM SPSS v. 26. Tables were generated for relevant data, and cross-tables were used to assess statistical association with Chi-square or Fisher's Exact tests, as required. Multivariate logistic regression was applied to the variables found to have a statistically significant association in cross-tables (<i>P</i> < 0.05). Almost sixty percent of study households had no health insurance coverage, while 39.4% of households had some degree of health insurance, and only 53 (28.2%) had complete health insurance coverage of all household members. Only 28.2% of households in the urban village of Aliganj, Delhi, are covered under health insurance.