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Updated – August 04, 2026 09:06 pm IST – Kozhikode
A study conducted in rural areas of Kozhikode district has found that 174 people per a population of 1,000 (17.4%) required outpatient (OP) medical treatment within a recall period of 15 days and 19 people per a population of 1,000 required (1.9%) inpatient (IP) medical treatment within a recall period of a year for their various illnesses.
It also revealed that the utilisation of private healthcare facilities was higher for both OP and IP care. Out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) was higher in private facilities compared with public facilities for both OP and IP services. A substantial proportion of households were covered under government health insurance schemes. The OOPE, however, remained considerable among both insured and uninsured households.
The study titled ‘Morbidity and out-of-pocket expenditure among rural households of Kozhikode district, Kerala’ was published in Healthline Journal, a peer-reviewed publication of the Indian Association of Social and Preventive Medicine, on July 23, 2026. It was conducted by T. Jayakrishnan, Head of the Department of Community Medicine, P. Sruthi Krishna, Assistant Professor, Community Medicine, and Anjali Lakshmanan and Ahana Salim, junior resident doctors, at KMCT Medical College, Mukkom, Kozhikode.
The community-based cross sectional study was conducted among 700 households and a sample size of 2,371 in a select grama panchayat in the district. Of the total population, 413 illnesses requiring OP treatment were reported over a period of 15 days, corresponding to a rate of 174 per 1,000 population. Most frequently reported cause of OP morbidities were infectious diseases (76.9%) which included viral fever, respiratory tract infections, mumps, chickenpox, and viral hepatitis. Accidents and injuries constituted 7.6%.