Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

That HIV/AIDS contributes towards severe economic hardships on individuals/households (HH) is well known. The objective of the present article, besides documenting the different economic implications of HIV/AIDS on medical expenditures of individuals/HHs, is to find through a comparative analysis if the expenses of HIV-positive respondents were significantly higher compared to those of all members from the control group of non-HIV/AIDS HHs taken together. On account of the peculiar nature and constraints involved, the study attempts the above through use of non-parametric tools of Chisquare and Mann–Whitney U. Findings reveal significant hardships faced by HIV/AIDS HHs, despite respondents opting more for free treatment; considering details of only one person per HH; often getting assistance from others like NGOs; and often not seeking treatment due to financial impediments—all unlike the control group.

Keywords

HIV/AIDS medical expenditures HIV/AIDS households treatment costs

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bloom, David , David Canning & Pia Malaney (2000). Demographic change and economic growth in East Asia. Population and Development Review, 26, 257–90.

Bloom, David , David Canning & Jaypee Sevilla (2004). The effect of health on economic growth: A production function approach. World Development, 32(1), 1–13.

Bloom, David , David Canning & Jaypee Sevilla and Sherry Glied (1993). Economic implications of AIDS in Asia. In D. Bloom and J. Lyons (Eds), Economic implications of AIDS in Asia. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Canning, David , A. Mahal , K. Odumosu , P. Okonkwo (2006). Assessing the economic impact of HIV/AIDS on Nigerian households: A propensity score matching approach. Program on the Global Demography of Aging: Working Paper Series. PGDA Working Paper No. 16. Retrieved from http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/pgda/working.htm, in August 2008).

’Dramatic fall in HIV cases, but war is on: NACO’, in The Economic Times [Published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., Mumbai], 07/July/2007.

Duraisamy, P. (2003). Economic impact of HIV/AIDS on patients and households in south India. Presentation, 11th IAEN Face-to-Face Conference. Retrieved from http://www.iaen.org/papers in May 2005.

Gautham, Meenakshi (2008). Hope after HIV. The Hindu November 30, p. 1.

GSACS (2010). HIV/AIDS in Goa. Monitoring and evaluation unit, Goa State AIDS Control Society. Retrieved from http://goasacs.nic.in/goa-HIV-data2010.pdf, accessed December 4, 2010).

HRLN (2008). A judicial colloquium: HIV/AIDS and the law. New Delhi: Human Rights Law Network.

10.

ILO. (2003). Socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS on people living with HIV/AIDS and their families. ILO India Project: ‘Prevention of HIV/AIDS in the world of work: A tripartite response’. New Delhi: ILO Publications, International Labour Office.

11.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) (2005). The IMF’s role in the fight against HIV/AIDS: A factsheet—September. Retrieved from http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/mdg.htm in February 2008.

12.

Martin, John L. & Laura Dean (1993). Developing a community sample of gay men for an epidemiological study of AIDS. In C. Renzetti and R. Lee (Eds), Research on sensitive topics (pp. 82–100). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

13.

NCAER (2004). Socio-economic Impact Study of HIV/AIDS: Questionnaire for HIV/AIDS Households. New Delhi: National Council for Applied Economic Research.

14.

Over, Mead (2004). Impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the health sectors of developing countries. In Markus Haacker (ed.), The macroeconomics of HIV/AIDS (311–44). IMF. Retrieved from http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/AIDS/eng/, accessed July, 2010).

15.

Pitayanon, S. , S. Kongsin & W. S. Janjaroen (1997). The economic impact of HIV/AIDS mortality on households in Thailand. In D. Bloom and P. Godwin (Eds), The Economics of HIV and AIDS: The Case of South and South-East Asia (53–101). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

16.

Pradhan, B.K. , R. Sundar & S.K. Singh (2006). Socio-economic impact of HIV and AIDS in India. New Delhi: NCAER, NACO and UNDP. Also available at http://data.undp.org.in/hivreport/India_Report.pdf, (accessed October, 2009).

17.

Ribbon of solidarity (Sentinel surveillance for HIV infection in Goa), in The Times of India [Published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., Goa], 01/December/2008.

18.

UNAIDS (2010). Global report: UNAIDS report on the global AIDS epidemic 2010. Retrieved from http://www.unaids.org/globalreport/Global_report.htm, accessed December 4, 2010).

19.

Watters, John, K. & Patrick Biernacki . (1989). Targeted sampling: Options for the study of hidden populations. Social Problems, 36(4), 416–430 [University of California Press, Berkeley, California].