Catastrophic healthcare expenditures among Iranian households: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Issue 2 (20th August 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rezaei, Satar; Woldemichael, Abraha; Hajizadeh, Mohammad; Kazemi Karyani, Ali
• Is Part Of: International journal of human rights in healthcare. Volume 12:Issue 2(2019)
• Page Start: 105
• Page End: 115
• Publication Date: 2018-08-20
• Subjects: Faith -- Human rights -- Healthcare -- Public services; Discrimination in medical care -- Periodicals; Minorities -- Medical care -- Periodicals; Social work with minorities -- Periodicals; Human rights -- Periodicals; 362.1
• DOI: 10.1108/IJHRH-02-2018-0017
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2056-4902

Abstract

Abstract : Purpose: Protecting households against financial risks of healthcare services is one of the main functions of health systems. The purpose of this paper is to provide a pooled estimate of the prevalence of catastrophic healthcare expenditures (CHE) among households in Iran. Design/methodology/approach: Both international (PubMed, Scopus and Clarivate Analytics (previously known as the Institute for Scientific Information)) and Iranian (Scientific Information Database, Iranmedex and Magiran) scientific databases were searched for published studies on CHE among Iranian households. The following keywords in Persian and English language were used as keywords for the search: "catastrophic healthcare costs, " "catastrophic health costs, " "impoverishment due to health costs, " "fair financial contribution, " "prevalence, " "frequency" and "Iran" with and without "health system". The I 2 -test and χ 2 -based Q -test suggested heterogeneity in the reported prevalence among the qualified studies; thus, a random-effects model was used to estimate the overall prevalence of CHE among households in Iran. Findings: A total of 24 studies with a cumulative sample of 301, 097 households were included in the study. The estimated pooled prevalence of CHE among households was 7 percent (95 percent confidence interval: 6–8 percent). Meta-regression analysis indicated that the prevalence of CHE was inversely related to the sample size ( p <0.05). The results did not suggest a significant association between the prevalence of CHE and the year of data collection. Originality/value: The findings revealed that the prevalence of CHE among Iranian households is significantly higher than 1 percent, which is the goal set out in Iran's fourth five-year development plan. This warrants further policy interventions to protect households from incurring CHE in Iran.