Age pattern of onset of disability and treatment seeking behaviour of disabled persons in India

Sangram Kishor Patel, International Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR)
Laishram Ladusingh, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Like mortality, disability being a potential measure of health status of population has not received much attention in research in the third world. The main objective of the study is to explore the age patterns of onset of disability and the factors associated with treatment seeking behaviour of disabled persons in India. Here, NSS-58th round-2002 disabled persons data has been analyzed using bivariate, epanechnikov kernel density curve and multilevel logistic regression analysis. Results divulge that onset of mental, speech disability are highly concentrated at younger ages population, whereas onset of visual and hearing disability are severely occurred at older ages population. More than twenty percent of disabled persons have not taken any treatments after the onset of disability. The chances of medical treatments taken or taking after the onset of visual, hearing, speech disability are less as compared to mental disability, while locomotor disability has 38 percent higher chances.