Strengths and weaknesses of the methodology
The main strength of the methodology is that it employed both qualitative and quantitative methods. This helped, for example, to ensure that the questions on coping strategies included in the exit survey were culturally and contextually appropriate (as they had been reported by participants in the preceding focus group discussions), and it enabled verification of exit survey findings through in-depth interviews with select respondents. Data on hospital expenditures and coping strategies are likely to have been recalled with good accuracy given that they were collected right at the time of discharge from hospital. This is one of very few Indian studies where investigators have been granted permission to conduct such an exit survey on the premises of both public and private hospitals. Finally, because the exit survey and in-depth interviews purposefully included strata of urban respondents, this is one of very few Indian studies that provide data on coping strategies among urbanites.