scholarly journals Socioeconomic inequalities in catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment associated with non-communicable diseases in urban Hanoi, Vietnam

Author(s):  
Vu Duy Kien ◽  
Hoang Van Minh ◽  
Kim Bao Giang ◽  
Amy Dao ◽  
Le Thanh Tuan ◽  
...  
Author(s):  
J. Jebamalar ◽  
P. K. Kailash Kumar

Background: The silent epidemic of non-communicable diseases threatens to retard the progress towards curbing catastrophic health expenditure. The present study aimed to describe the level of awareness about and utilisation of health insurance and to measure the healthcare costs for non-communicable diseases.Methods: A total of 354 adult patients suffering from non-communicable diseases, who reside in Villupuram district and attend the NCD clinic in the Government medical college hospital, Villupuram were studied over a period of 6 months.Results: 77% of the subjects were aware of health insurance. The most frequent source of information was local government officials and the hospitals themselves. 74.01% had availed some form of health insurance. There was a moderately strong correlation between loss of wages and total health expenses. The incidence of catastrophic health expenditure due to NCD clinic visits was around 7%.Conclusions: The absence of outpatient costs in the covers of most health insurance schemes may be decreasing their effectiveness in controlling catastrophic health expenditure.


2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (9) ◽  
pp. 926-934
Author(s):  
Svetlana Radevic ◽  
Snezana Radovanovic ◽  
Nela Djonovic ◽  
Ivana Simic-Vukomanovic ◽  
Natasa Mihailovic ◽  
...  

Background/Aim. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are a major public health challenge worldwide. Although they are preventable, NCDs are the major global causes of morbidity and mortality, absenteeism, disability and premature death. The aim of this study was to examine socioeconomic inequalities in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases in Serbia. Methods. Data from the 2013 National Health Survey of the population of Serbia was used in this study. There were 13,765 adults interviewed, aged ? 20 years. We used multivariate logistic regression analyses with demographic and socioeconomic determinants of health as independent variables and prevalence of non-communicable diseases as a dependent variable. The minimum level of significance was p < 0.05. Results. Hypertension was the most prevalent NCDs (36.1%). The prevalence of multimorbidity was 47.1%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that gender, age, place of residence, employment status and education were associated with the presence of NCDs. The odds ratio (OR) for age was 1.074 [95% confidence interval (CI) : 1.070?1.077). Women were at a higher risk of NCDs by 58.9% when compared to men (OR = 1.589; 95% 95% CI : 1.467?1.726). Respondents who lived in the rural areas were at a higher risk for NCDs by 14.1% compared to those who lived in urban areas (OR = 1.141; 95% CI : 1.047? 1.244). Odds ratio for unemployment was 1.227 (95% CI: 1.118?1.346). Respondents with primary education were at a higher risk for chronic diseases by 47.1% (OR = 1.471; 95% CI : 1.281?1.687) while those with secondary school were at a higher risk by 27.7% (OR = 1.277; 95% CI : 1.142?1.428) compared to respondents who had higher education. When it comes to Wealth Index, univariate logistic regression analysis showed that respondents who belonged to the poor and middle classes were at a higher risk for NCDs (OR = 2.031; 95% CI : 1.819?2.267; OR = 1.473; 95% CI : 1.343? 1.615) compared to respondents who belonged to the rich class. Multivariate logistic regression analysis did not show statistically significant correlations between the Wealth index and NCDs. Conclusion. Socioeconomic inequalities in health status are the major challenge and should be a target of national health policy in Serbia, not only because they represent social injustice but also because solving the health problems of underprivileged groups of the population can influence improvement of health status of the population as a whole.


Author(s):  
Daniel Badulescu ◽  
Ramona Simut ◽  
Alina Badulescu ◽  
Andrei-Vlad Badulescu

National and global health policies are increasingly recognizing the key role of the environment in human health development, which is related to its economic and social determinants, such as income level, technical progress, education, quality of jobs, inequality, education or lifestyle. Research has shown that the increase of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita can provide additional funds for health but also for environmental protection. However, often, economic growth is associated with the accelerated degradation of the environment, and this in turn will result in an exponential increase in harmful emissions and will implicitly determine the increasing occurrence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), mainly cardiovascular diseases, cancers and respiratory diseases. In this paper, we investigate the role and effects of economic growth, environmental pollution and non-communicable diseases on health expenditures, for the case of EU (European Union) countries during 2000–2014. In order to investigate the long-term and the short-term relationship between them, we have employed the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method. Using the Pedroni-Johansen cointegration methods, we found that the variables are cointegrated. The findings of this study show that economic growth is one of the most important factors influencing the health expenditures both in the long- and short-run in all the 28 EU countries. With regards to the influence of CO2 emissions on health expenditure, we have found a negative impact in the short-run and a positive impact on the long-run. We have also introduced an interaction between NCDs and environmental expenditure as independent variable, a product variable. Finally, we have found that in all the three estimated models, the variation in environmental expenditure produces changes in NCDs’ effect on health expenditure.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1522-1537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vu Duy Kien ◽  
Hoang Van Minh ◽  
Kim Bao Giang ◽  
Amy Dao ◽  
Lars Weinehall ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agness Ngwira ◽  
Maio Bulawayo ◽  
Peter Hangoma

Abstract BackgroundWith progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) the disease burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in LMICs is increasing while inequalities in healthcare access exist. We aimed to investigate whether health insurance enables people with NCDs to utilize health services more than their counterparts without insurance.MethodsUsing a quantitative research method and data from the Zambia Household Health Expenditure Utilization Survey (ZHHEUS, 2013) conducted in 2013, we focussed on the people who recalled visiting a health facility a month prior to the survey, 8,146 of whom said yes. Approximately 2247 had an NCD while 229 were covered by health insurance. Only women age 15-49 and men age 15-59 who were interviewed for information regarding themselves and other members of the household. The survey included questions on demographics, health status (self-rated health); illness experiences, healthcare utilization (visits, admission, type of providers sought, health expenditure); and insurance cover. Specifically, individuals were asked if they had visited a health facility in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. ResultsWe find that NCDs are associated with an increase in healthcare use (5.4 percentage points (pp); 95% CI -0.28 to 0.09; p=<0.001). Utilization increases further for those with NCDs by having health insurance (6.4pp; 95% CI -0.18 to 0.05; p=0.285) though the association was not statistically significant. Having health insurance itself, regardless of NCD status, is associated with a higher utilization (6.4pp; 95% CI -0.13 to 0.0005; p=0.048). ConclusionsOur results suggest that health insurance may play an important role in improving access among people with chronic conditions, and since they mainly affect poorer households, health insurance may have a strong equity result in a low- and middle-income country context.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. e002040 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrianna Murphy ◽  
Benjamin Palafox ◽  
Marjan Walli-Attaei ◽  
Timothy Powell-Jackson ◽  
Sumathy Rangarajan ◽  
...  

BackgroundNon-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death globally. In 2014, the United Nations committed to reducing premature mortality from NCDs, including by reducing the burden of healthcare costs. Since 2014, the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology (PURE) Study has been collecting health expenditure data from households with NCDs in 18 countries.MethodsUsing data from the PURE Study, we estimated risk of catastrophic health spending and impoverishment among households with at least one person with NCDs (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney disease, cancer and respiratory diseases; n=17 435), with hypertension only (a leading risk factor for NCDs; n=11 831) or with neither (n=22 654) by country income group: high-income countries (Canada and Sweden), upper middle income countries (UMICs: Brazil, Chile, Malaysia, Poland, South Africa and Turkey), lower middle income countries (LMICs: the Philippines, Colombia, India, Iran and the Occupied Palestinian Territory) and low-income countries (LICs: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Tanzania) and China.ResultsThe prevalence of catastrophic spending and impoverishment is highest among households with NCDs in LMICs and China. After adjusting for covariates that might drive health expenditure, the absolute risk of catastrophic spending is higher in households with NCDs compared with no NCDs in LMICs (risk difference=1.71%; 95% CI 0.75 to 2.67), UMICs (0.82%; 95% CI 0.37 to 1.27) and China (7.52%; 95% CI 5.88 to 9.16). A similar pattern is observed in UMICs and China for impoverishment. A high proportion of those with NCDs in LICs, especially women (38.7% compared with 12.6% in men), reported not taking medication due to costs.ConclusionsOur findings show that financial protection from healthcare costs for people with NCDs is inadequate, particularly in LMICs and China. While the burden of NCD care may appear greatest in LMICs and China, the burden in LICs may be masked by care foregone due to costs. The high proportion of women reporting foregone care due to cost may in part explain gender inequality in treatment of NCDs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (5_suppl) ◽  
pp. 35S-44S ◽  
Author(s):  
Vu Duy Kien ◽  
Hoang Van Minh ◽  
Nguyen Bao Ngoc ◽  
Tran Bich Phuong ◽  
Tran Thu Ngan ◽  
...  

A costly modern-day double burden, the expenses of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are becoming a devastating epidemic. The World Health Organization estimates $7 trillion in economic losses from NCDs in 2011-2025. Although regarded as affluent diseases, the burden of NCDs is shifting into poorer groups. In this study, we assessed the socioeconomic inequalities in catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment associated with NCDs in Northern Vietnam. We also identified associated factors for catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment. Households self-reporting NCD diagnoses had the highest association with both catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment, followed by those in urban areas. Such households were likely poorer according to our calculations estimating socioeconomic inequalities. Households with at least 1 member older than 60 years were also more likely to suffer catastrophic health expenditures. These findings suggest that targeted policy to prevent or subsidize care for NCDs could prevent catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment among those already most disadvantaged.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samwel Maina Gatimu ◽  
Thomas Wiswa John

Abstract IntroductionOne in four Kenyans have raised blood pressure. Despite this high prevalence of hypertension and known association between socioeconomic status and hypertension, there is a paucity of evidence on inequality in raised blood pressure in Kenya. Hence, we quantified the socioeconomic inequality in hypertension in Kenya and decomposed the determinants contributing to such inequality.MethodsWe used data from the 2015 Kenya STEP wise survey for non-communicable diseases risk factors. We included 4,398 respondents aged 18–69 years. We estimated the socioeconomic inequality using the concentration index (C) and decomposed the C using Wag staff decomposition analysis.ResultsThe overall concentration index of hypertension in Kenya was − 0.08 (95% CI: −0.14, − 0.02; p = 0.007), showing socioeconomic inequalities in hypertension disfavouring the poor population. Half (52.8%) of the pro-rich inequalities in hypertension was explained by body mass index (52.8%) while 21.1% by socioeconomic factors (paid employment (9.3%), education (7.7%) and poorest wealth quintile (4.1%)) and 17.6% by demographic factors (female gender (11.8%), age (5.2%) and marital status (0.6%)). Regional differences explained 8.1% of the estimated inequality with the Central region alone explaining 6.9% of the observed inequality. Our model explained 98.3% of the estimated socioeconomic inequality in hypertension in Kenya with a small non-explained part of the inequality (− 0.001).ConclusionThe present study shows substantial socioeconomic inequalities in hypertension in Kenya, mainly explained by metabolic risk factors (body mass index), individual health behaviours, and socioeconomic factors. Kenya needs gender- and equity-focused interventions to curb the rising burden of hypertension and inequalities in hypertension.


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