Awareness of the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana in the Rural Community: A Cross-Sectional Study in Eastern India

Background Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) is one of the flagship programs intended to provide financial protection to people availing of secondary and tertiary level health care. It???s been nearly three years since the implementation of AB-PMJAY in Bihar, yet the level of awareness, especially in rural communities, is unknown. So, this study was planned to explore the awareness and utilization of AB-PMJAY in the selected rural area of Bihar. Methodology This community-based cross-sectional study used a multistage sampling strategy to select 802 households within a radius of 5 Km from the rural health training centre, Naubatpur. A pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the necessary data regarding awareness of AB-PMJAY. The association between category, occupation, education, age group, and ration card with the awareness of AB-PMJAY was assessed using Pearson???s chi-square test. Results The awareness of the AB-PMJAY was 68.6% (95% CI: 65.30%-71.7%), while out of 459 eligible study participants, 362 (78.9%) were aware of the AB-PMJAY. Utilization of AB-PMJAY was only 1.3% among the eligible study participants. There was a statistical significance between the category of eligible study, ration card, and employment status with the awareness of the AB-PMJAY. Conclusion Every two out of three rural individuals and three out of every four eligible participants were aware of the AB-PMJAY scheme, while the level of utilization was found to be very low at 1.3%; hence, training of the healthcare workers at the grass-root level, like accredited social health activists (ASHA) and Anganwadi workers (AWW), should be done regularly to improve the connection in the community and for effective utilization of the Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY.

Automated summary

This study aimed to explore the awareness and utilization of Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) in a selected rural area of Bihar, India. The results showed that 68.6% of the participants were aware of the program, while the utilization rate was only 1.3%. Therefore, training of healthcare workers at the grass-root level should be strengthened to improve community connection and effective utilization of the scheme.