Comorbid Illness, Injuries and Health Insurance Subscription Among Self-Reported Mentally Disabled Subjects of Tamil Nadu, India.

BACKGROUND: -Mentally Disabled (MD) subjects often have multiple co-morbidities and also experience injuries, acute and chronic illness like the general population. Details of such episodes and the impact of health insurance have not been described for Tamil Nadu, an Indian state population. This manuscript intends to report on this experience. MATERIALS AND METHOD: -Secondary Data Analysis of District Level Household and Facility survey-4 (2012-13) were employed for this study. Comparison of MD with the normal population was performed. Demographic characteristics along with injury (in preceding year), acute illness (within past 15 days) and the experience of chronic illness (requiring treatment for 1 month), treatment seeking behavior and health insurance coverage formed the variables. Descriptive statistics, chi-square and odds ratio are presented. P≤0.005 was considered as statistical significance. RESULT: -Of the 179381 surveyed, 565(0.3%) had some form of MD and 169938 (94.7%) had no disabilities. The two groups varied in age, gender, and marital status. MD population had nearly 4 times the incidence of injury (P = 0.000) in the past 1 year, more commonly requiring in-patient treatment. Epilepsy was more common among individuals with MD with odds ratio of 7.159 [P = 0.015]. Health insurance cover and its influence on treatment seeking behavior are presented. DISCUSSION: -The experience of injuries, acute and chronic illness by individuals with MD, to the best of our knowledge has been described for the first time in Tamil Nadu. Individuals with MD and without health insurance often do not take treatment. The absence of health insurance with the resulting increased cost of out-of-pocket expense for chronic illness may force them to neglect their health. These factors are discussed along with recommendations for policy makers.