Estimating the odd-ratio of factors affecting households' exposure to catastrophic and impoverishing health expenditures

Abstract

Aims: The main object of this study was to estimate the odd-ratio of factors affecting families' exposure to catastrophic and impoverishing health expenditures. Methods: This research was a cross-section study with a clustered sampling method. The sampling units were Tehran's households who had lived in Tehran for at least one year before the data collection. The data gathering tool was the WHO questioner. The Logistic model and the stata13 software were used for estimating the odd-ratio of the factors determining households' exposure to catastrophic and impoverishing health expenditures. Results: According to the results of this study, the presence of a family member older than 60, using inpatient services and informal payments increase the probability of catastrophic expenditures. This is while insurance coverages reduces this issue. Conclusion: According to the obtained results, extending the insurance coverage and the prepayment mechanism, preparing low cost inpatient services by the extension of prepayments, codifying health care packages under the commitment of insurance agencies, reforming the payment systems and monitoring tariffs can prevent households from falling under the poverty line. This means that it can help families to overcome their poverty in order to have better lives.