BACKGROUND Expenditure on medications for highly prevalent chronic conditions such as diabetes mellitus (DM) can result in financial impoverishment. People in developing countries and in low socioeconomic status groups are particularly vulnerable. China and India currently hold the world's two largest DM populations. Both countries are ageing and undergoing rapid economic development, urbanisat...

Abstract Background Breast cancer disease is the most common among Iranian women and imposing a significant financial burden on households. This study calculated out-of-pocket (OOP), catastrophic health expenditure (CHE), impoverishing spending attributed to breast in Iran. Methods In this cross-sectional household study, clinical information also (expenditures income) were obtained through fac...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate treatment-seeking behaviour, financial impact and time lost due to malaria events, in southern Mozambique and eastern South Africa. METHODS In-depth household surveys (828 in Mozambique and 827 in South Africa) were analysed. An asset index was calculated using principal component analysis to allow comparison across socio-economic groups. Direct costs of seeking care an...

BACKGROUND Although persons with disabilities need access to comprehensive and consistent healthcare services, a significant number of the poor with disabilities do not receive Medical-Aid due to the conditions of eligibility. We aimed to compare the financial burden of healthcare services between two groups of poor persons with disabilities: those not enrolled in Medical-Aid and Medical-Aid en...

OBJECTIVES The study objective was to identify the size of different hospital financing sources for different hospital services and their impact on the uninsured. METHODS A panel dataset of 84 public general hospitals (2005-2008) with cross-section data on hospital activity and hospital revenue was created and used to calculate unit costs of different hospital services by applying multiple re...