IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ijhplm/v36y2021i1p83-99.html

What attracts and sustain urban poor to informal healthcare practitioners? A study on practitioners' perspectives and patients' experiences in an Indian city

Author

Listed:
  • Abdul Azeez E P
  • G. Anbu Selvi
  • Garima Sharma
  • Senthil Kumar A P

Abstract

The practice of allopathic medicine by informal healthcare practitioners (IHPs) is ubiquitous in India. However, a little is known about the patients' experiences and IHPs' perspectives. The core questions guided the present study were (1) why do urban poor approach IHPs for healthcare? (2) what are their experiences of availing services from IHPs? and (3) what are the perspectives of IHPs about their practice with the population they serve? A qualitative research design guided the study. The study was conducted in the Gurugram city of Haryana, India. Nine IHPs and twenty‐seven patients who fit into the pre‐established inclusion criteria were interviewed. The findings of the study underline the structural constrains of healthcare access to the poor in India and the mutual dependencies between IHPs and the urban poor. Three themes were emerged corresponding to the perspectives of IHPs, and five themes were generated, which describes patients' experiences and perspectives of availing treatment. The factors that attract and sustain patients to IHPs are a mixture of socio‐economic aspects, which include poverty, inaccessibility, unaffordability, inefficient public healthcare facilities, and the positive behavioural and treatment attributes of the practitioners. The study implies urgent policy interventions to ensure quality healthcare to urban poor.

Suggested Citation

  • Abdul Azeez E P & G. Anbu Selvi & Garima Sharma & Senthil Kumar A P, 2021. "What attracts and sustain urban poor to informal healthcare practitioners? A study on practitioners' perspectives and patients' experiences in an Indian city," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 83-99, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijhplm:v:36:y:2021:i:1:p:83-99
    DOI: 10.1002/hpm.3068
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.3068
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hpm.3068?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cross, Jamie & MacGregor, Hayley Nan, 2010. "Knowledge, legitimacy and economic practice in informal markets for medicine: A critical review of research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(9), pages 1593-1600, November.
    2. May Sudhinaraset & Matthew Ingram & Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse & Dominic Montagu, 2013. "What Is the Role of Informal Healthcare Providers in Developing Countries? A Systematic Review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(2), pages 1-12, February.
    3. George, Asha & Iyer, Aditi, 2013. "Unfree markets: Socially embedded informal health providers in northern Karnataka, India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 297-304.
    4. Ensor, Tim & Witter, Sophie, 2001. "Health economics in low income countries: adapting to the reality of the unofficial economy," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 1-13, July.
    5. Jishnu Das & Alaka Holla & Aakash Mohpal & Karthik Muralidharan, 2016. "Quality and Accountability in Health Care Delivery: Audit-Study Evidence from Primary Care in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(12), pages 3765-3799, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sieverding, Maia & Liu, Jenny & Beyeler, Naomi, 2015. "Social support in the practices of informal providers: The case of patent and proprietary medicine vendors in Nigeria," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 17-25.
    2. Azunre, Gideon Abagna & Amponsah, Owusu & Takyi, Stephen Appiah & Mensah, Henry & Braimah, Imoro, 2022. "Urban informalities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): A solution for or barrier against sustainable city development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    3. Gopesh Anand & Dilip Chhajed & Shailja Shah & Salla Atkins & Vishal Diwan, 2019. "Do qualifications matter? A qualitative study of how villagers decide their health care providers in a developing economy," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(8), pages 1-12, August.
    4. Gautham, Meenakshi & Spicer, Neil & Chatterjee, Soumyadip & Goodman, Catherine, 2021. "What are the challenges for antibiotic stewardship at the community level? An analysis of the drivers of antibiotic provision by informal healthcare providers in rural India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    5. Natalia Guerrero & Oswaldo Molina & Diego Winkelried, 2020. "Conditional cash transfers, spillovers, and informal health care: Evidence from Peru," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2), pages 111-122, February.
    6. Sujatha, V., 2023. "Of informal practitioners of biomedicine. The interplay of medicine, economy and society in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    7. Althaf Shajahan & Arnab Mukherji, 2022. "To Rx or Not: Mainstreaming Informal Providers," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 47(4), pages 303-313, December.
    8. May Sudhinaraset & Matthew Ingram & Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse & Dominic Montagu, 2013. "What Is the Role of Informal Healthcare Providers in Developing Countries? A Systematic Review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(2), pages 1-12, February.
    9. Rubli, Adrian, 2023. "Trade-offs between access and quality in healthcare: Evidence from retail clinics in Mexico," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    10. Maxime Perodaud & Michela Chessa, 2026. "Hey, what did you expect ? Confirmation bias in credence goods markets: Theoretical and experimental analyses," Post-Print hal-05441370, HAL.
    11. Godlonton, Susan & Okeke, Edward N., 2016. "Does a ban on informal health providers save lives? Evidence from Malawi," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 112-132.
    12. Yuyu Chen & Hongbin Li & Lingsheng Meng & Xinyao Qiu & Qingxu Yang, 2026. "Directional AI Advice: Experimental Evidence from Healthcare," Papers 2607.08706, arXiv.org.
    13. Sane, Renuka & Halan, Monika, 2017. "Misled and mis-sold: financial misbehaviour in retail banks?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 429-444.
    14. Crawfurd, Lee & Hares, Susannah & Minardi, Ana & Sandefur, Justin, 2025. "Understanding education policy preferences: Survey experiments with policymakers in 35 developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    15. Richard ILes, 2017. "Government Doctor Absenteeism And Its Effects On Consumer Demand In Rural North India," Working Papers 2018-9, School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University.
    16. Lucas, Henry, 2015. "New technology and illness self-management: Potential relevance for resource-poor populations in Asia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 145-153.
    17. Richard A. Iles, 2019. "Government doctor absenteeism and its effects on consumer demand in rural north India," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 475-491, April.
    18. Darin Christensen & Oeindrila Dube & Johannes Haushofer & Bilal Siddiqi & Maarten Voors, 2021. "Building Resilient Health Systems: Experimental Evidence from Sierra Leone and The 2014 Ebola Outbreak," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(2), pages 1145-1198.
    19. Christian Posso & Jorge Tamayo & Arlen Guarin & Estefania Saravia, 2024. "Luck of the Draw: The Causal Effect of Physicians on Birth Outcomes," Borradores de Economia 1269, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    20. Hiroyuki Takeshima, 2024. "Public Expenditure’s Role in Reducing Poverty and Improving Food and Nutrition Security: Cross-Country Evidence from SPEED Data," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 36(5), pages 1045-1073, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ijhplm:v:36:y:2021:i:1:p:83-99. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0749-6753 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.