SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR TREATMENT OF HEPATITIS IN FAISALABAD, PUNJAB

Abstract

Economic growth models have been extended to recognize the importance of health and to include it as a human capital input. Keeping in the view the importance of health in economic development, this study aims to calculate the socio economic determinants of knowledge and attitude towards hepatitis B and C which are the main sources of dismalness, mortality and genuine general wellbeing issue in Pakistan and are affecting approximately two billion people worldwide. So, this study also aims to calculate the willingness to pay (WTP) for vaccination and economic burden of this disease so policy suggestion can be given to competent authorities for decreasing the burden. Data from 600 respondents were collected for the study. Tobit model is used to calculate the determinants of knowledge and attitude towards hepatitis patients. Multinomial logistic model is used to calculate the WTP for vaccination. Direct and indirect annual costs are also calculated for hepatitis B and C. It is found that mostly people have no knowledge about the disease and mostly people had negative attitude toward patients. Income, urban areas and education have positive impact on knowledge and attitude. High income group and educated people are more willing to pay for vaccination and treatment for hepatitis. It is also found that hepatitis treatment cost is very high in Pakistan. It has great economic burden on people. The study shows that hepatitis disease has also significantly negative impact on agriculture production. It is recommended that Government should launch the awareness campaign to increase the knowledge about this disease especially in rural area so that attitude can also be shifted from negative to positive. People have low capacity to pay therefore a large scale vaccination program is suggested to overcome this menace. The average annual cost for treatment of hepatitis per patient is Rs. 152648.91 Per annum. Hepatitis patients spend 28 percent of their average annual income on treatment showing that people have not capacity to afford its treatment. WTP for treatment of hepatitis is also recorded and it endorses the notion above. Therefore, government should intervene in the channel to support the most vulnerable patient (poor) for their treatment.