Households Exposure to Catastrophic Health Expenditures and the Affecting Factors in Kerman Province, Iran

Introduction: The main objective of an efficient financing system is to provide sufficient resources to ensure population access to public and personal health services in a way not to move people toward poverty due to inability to pay. One of the indicators of contribution in financing is the percent of households exposed to catastrophic health expenditures (CHE). The study aimed to measur this indicator in Kerman province, Iran, and the affecting factors. Method: In this descriptive-analytical retrospective research, the study population consisted of all households living in Kerman province in ۲۰۰۸. Research sample consisted of ۱۴۸۰ households selected by Iran Statistics Center separately for urban and rural areas via systematic randomized sampling method during ۲۰۰۸-households expenditure and income survey. Households whose financial contribution in health system was above ۴۰% of their residual income after paying for subsistence expenditures were defined as households with catastrophic expenditures. In order to explore affecting factors on catastrophic health expenditures incidence, chi-square test and logistic regression was applied. Results: ۴.۱% of households were exposed to catastrophic health expenditures urban households were exposed ۱.۵ times more than their rural counterparts. Catastrophic health expenditures exposure had significant relationship with health services utilization, particularly inpatient, outpatient and dental care services (P > ۰.۰۵). Discussion and Conclusion: Consuming dental services, inpatient and outpatient services (radiology, sonography, radiotherapy, echocardiography, MRI, exercise test, catastrophic health expenditures, etc.) increases the probability of exposure to catastrophic health expenditures. Findings of this study have made health policy makers and planners to have insight on characteristics and factors that make households more vulnerable to health expenditures.

کلیدواژه ها:

Financial protection ، Catastrophic health expenditures ، Health system equity ، Kerman province ، Iran ، محافظت مالی ، هزینه های کمرشکن سلامت ، عدالت در نظام سلامت ، استان کرمان ، ایران