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Original Article
- Inequality in Private Health Care Expenditures: A 36-Year Trend Study of Iranian Households
- Ehsan Aghapour, Mehdi Basakha, Seyed Hossein Mohaqeqi Kamal, Abolghasem Pourreza
- J Prev Med Public Health. 2022;55(4):379-388. Published online June 27, 2022
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.3961/jpmph.22.123
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Abstract
PDF - Objectives
Throughout history, societies have been impacted by inequality. Many studies have been conducted on the topic more broadly, but only a few have investigated inequalities in out-of-pocket health payments (OHP). This study measures OHP inequality trends among the Iranian households.
Methods
This study used data from the Iranian Statistics Center on Iranian household income and expenditures. The analysis included a total of 995 300 households during the 36 years from 1984 to 2019. The Gini coefficient, Atkinson index, and Theil index were calculated for Iranian OHP.
Results
Average Iranian household OHP increased from 33 US dollar (USD) in 1984 to 47 USD in 2019. During this 36-year span, the average±standard deviation Gini coefficient for OHP was 0.73±0.04, and the Atkinson and Theil indexes were 0.68±0.05 and 1.14±0.29, respectively. The Gini coefficients for the subcategories of OHP of outpatient diagnostic services, medical assistant accessories, hospital inpatient services, and addiction cessation were 0.70, 0.61, 0.84, and 0.64, respectively.
Conclusions
In this study, we scrutinized trends of inequality in the OHP of Iranian households. Inequality in OHP decreased slightly over the past four decades. An analysis of trends among different subgroups revealed that affluent households, such as households with insurance coverage and households in higher income deciles, experienced higher inequality. Therefore, lower inequality in health care expenditures may be related to restricted access to health care services in Iran. -
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Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
- Decomposition of Healthcare Utilization Inequality in Iran: The Prominent Role of Health Literacy and Neighborhood Characteristics
Neda Soleimanvandiazar, Seyed Hossein Mohaqeqi Kamal, Mehdi Basakha, SalahEddin Karim, Sina Ahmadi, Gholamreza Ghaedamini Harouni, Homeira Sajjadi, Ameneh Setareh Forouzan
INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing.2024;[Epub] CrossRef
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