Catastrophic Healthcare Expenditures of Hospitalized Patients in the Hospitals of Shiraz in 2013

摘要

Background:Diseaseoftenoccursunpredictablyand,intheabsenceofadequatecoverage,itsexpenditurescanhavesignificanteconomicimpactsonafamily.Objectives:Thisstudyaimedtoidentifythedeterminantsofexposuretocatastrophichealthcareexpendituresinthehospitalizedpatients,intheselectedhospitalsofShirazUniversityofMedicalSciences,Shiraz,Iran.PatientsandMethods:Thisstudywasconductedon376patientshospitalizedinsimilarwardsofapublicandasemi-privatehospitalinShiraz,Iran.ThestudydatawerecollectedusingWorldHealthOrganizationquestionnaire,thePersianversionofwhichitwasvalidatedinapreviousstudy.Catastrophichealthexpenditurespaymentswerecalculatedbasedonthehouseholdsa€?capacity.Datawereanalyzedusingchi-squaretest,T-test,Mann-Whitney,andlogisticregressionbySPSS.Results:Basedonthefindingsofthepresentstudy,175(47.3%)ofthehospitalizedpatientswereexposedtocatastrophichealthcareexpendituresin2013.Additionally,theresultsofregressionanalysisindicatedthatthetypeofhospital,ward,supplementalinsurancestatusoftheheadofhousehold,durationofdiagnosis,durationofhospitalization,andabilitytopay,andnotthehousehold#039;seconomicstatus,wereeffectiveinreducingtheexposuretocatastrophichealthcareexpenditures.Conclusions:Thehighpercentageofhouseholds,facingcatastrophicexpenditureinhospitalizedpatients,revealedanexpenditurebottleneckinthehealthsystem.Therefore,whenplanningtoreduceexcessiveexpendituresinthehealthsystem,acrucialpointistoconsiderhospitalizations.