Dataset Information

Inequity in catastrophic costs among tuberculosis-affected households in China.

ABSTRACT:

Background

There are limited nationally representative studies globally in the post-2015 END tuberculosis (TB) era regarding wealth related inequity in the distribution of catastrophic costs due to TB care. Under the Chinese national tuberculosis programme setting, we aimed to assess extent of equity in distribution of total TB care costs (pre-treatment, treatment and overall) and costs as a proportion of annual household income (AHI), and describe and compare equity in distribution of catastrophic costs (pre-treatment, treatment and overall) across population sub-groups.

Methods

Analytical cross-sectional study using data from national TB patient cost survey carried out in 22 counties from six provinces in China in 2017. Drug-susceptible pulmonary TB registered under programme, who had received at least 2 weeks of intensive phase therapy were included. Equity was depicted using concentration curves and concentration indices were compared using dominance test.

Results

Of 1147 patients, the median cost of pre-treatment, treatment and overall care, were USD 283.5, USD 413.1 and USD 965.5, respectively. Richer quintiles incurred significantly higher pre-treatment and treatment costs compared to poorer quintiles. The distribution of costs as a proportion of AHI and catastrophic costs were significantly pro-poor overall as well as during pre-treatment and treatment phase. All the concentration curves for catastrophic costs (due to pre-treatment, treatment and overall care) stratified by region (east, middle and west), area of residence (urban, rural) and type of insurance (new rural co-operative medical system [NCMS], non-NCMS) also exhibited a pro-poor pattern with statistically significant (P?ConclusionsThere is inequity in the distribution of catastrophic costs due to TB care. Universal health coverage, social protection strategies complemented by quality TB care is vital to reduce inequitable distribution of catastrophic costs due to TB care in China.

SUBMITTER: Xu CH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6582572 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Inequity in catastrophic costs among tuberculosis-affected households in China.

Xu Cai-Hong CH Jeyashree Kathiresan K Shewade Hemant Deepak HD Xia Yin-Yin YY Wang Li-Xia LX Liu Yan Y Zhang Hui H Wang Li L

Infectious diseases of poverty 20190619 1

<h4>Background</h4>There are limited nationally representative studies globally in the post-2015 END tuberculosis (TB) era regarding wealth related inequity in the distribution of catastrophic costs due to TB care. Under the Chinese national tuberculosis programme setting, we aimed to assess extent of equity in distribution of total TB care costs (pre-treatment, treatment and overall) and costs as a proportion of annual household income (AHI), and describe and compare equity in distribution of c ...[more]

PMID: 31215476

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Project description:BACKGROUND:As well as imposing an economic burden on affected households, the high costs related to tuberculosis (TB) can create access and adherence barriers. This highlights the particular urgency of achieving one of the End TB Strategy's targets: that no TB-affected households have to face catastrophic costs by 2020. In Indonesia, as elsewhere, there is also an emerging need to provide social protection by implementing universal health coverage (UHC). We therefore assessed the incidence of catastrophic total costs due to TB, and their determinants since the implementation of UHC. METHODS:We interviewed adult TB and multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) patients in urban, suburban and rural areas of Indonesia who had been treated for at least one month or had finished treatment no more than one month earlier. Following the WHO recommendation, we assessed the incidence of catastrophic total costs due to TB. We also analyzed the sensitivity of incidence relative to several thresholds, and measured differences between poor and non-poor households in the incidence of catastrophic costs. Generalized linear mixed-model analysis was used to identify determinants of the catastrophic total costs. RESULTS:We analyzed 282 TB and 64 MDR-TB patients. For TB-related services, the median (interquartile range) of total costs incurred by households was 133 USD (55-576); for MDR-TB-related services, it was 2804 USD (1008-4325). The incidence of catastrophic total costs in all TB-affected households was 36% (43% in poor households and 25% in non-poor households). For MDR-TB-affected households, the incidence was 83% (83% and 83%). In TB-affected households, the determinants of catastrophic total costs were poor households (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]?=?3.7, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.7-7.8); being a breadwinner (aOR?=?2.9, 95% CI: 1.3-6.6); job loss (aOR?=?21.2; 95% CI: 8.3-53.9); and previous TB treatment (aOR?=?2.9; 95% CI: 1.4-6.1). In MDR-TB-affected households, having an income-earning job before diagnosis was the only determinant of catastrophic total costs (aOR?=?8.7; 95% CI: 1.8-41.7). CONCLUSIONS:Despite the implementation of UHC, TB-affected households still risk catastrophic total costs and further impoverishment. As well as ensuring access to healthcare, a cost-mitigation policy and additional financial protection should be provided to protect the poor and relieve income losses.

Project description:BackgroundThe World Health Organization's End Tuberculosis Strategy states that no tuberculosis (TB)-affected households should endure catastrophic costs due to TB. To achieve this target, it is essential to provide adequate social protection. As only a few studies in many countries have evaluated social-protection programs to determine whether the target is being reached, we assessed the effect of financial support on reducing the incidence of catastrophic costs due to TB in Indonesia.MethodsFrom July to September 2016, we interviewed adult patients receiving treatment for TB in 19 primary health centres in urban, sub-urban and rural area of Indonesia, and those receiving multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB treatment in an Indonesian national referral hospital. Based on the needs assessment, we developed eight scenarios for financial support. We assessed the effect of each simulated scenario by measuring reductions in the incidence of catastrophic costs.ResultsWe analysed data of 282 TB and 64 MDR-TB patients. The incidences of catastrophic costs in affected households were 36 and 83%, respectively. Patients' primary needs for social protection were financial support to cover costs related to income loss, transportation, and food supplements. The optimum scenario, in which financial support would be provided for these three items, would reduce the respective incidences of catastrophic costs in TB and MDR-TB-affected households to 11 and 23%. The patients experiencing catastrophic costs in this scenario would, however, have to pay high remaining costs (median of USD 910; [interquartile range (IQR) 662] in the TB group, and USD 2613; [IQR 3442] in the MDR-TB group).ConclusionsIndonesia's current level of social protection is not sufficient to mitigate the socioeconomic impact of TB. Financial support for income loss, transportation costs, and food-supplement costs will substantially reduce the incidence of catastrophic costs, but financial support alone will not be sufficient to achieve the target of 0% TB-affected households facing catastrophic costs. This would require innovative social-protection policies and higher levels of domestic and external funding.

Project description:Illness-related costs for patients with tuberculosis (TB) ?20% of pre-illness annual household income predict adverse treatment outcomes and have been termed "catastrophic." Social protection initiatives, including cash transfers, are endorsed to help prevent catastrophic costs. With this aim, cash transfers may either be provided to defray TB-related costs of households with a confirmed TB diagnosis (termed a "TB-specific" approach); or to increase income of households with high TB risk to strengthen their economic resilience (termed a "TB-sensitive" approach). The impact of cash transfers provided with each of these approaches might vary. We undertook an economic modelling study from the patient perspective to compare the potential of these 2 cash transfer approaches to prevent catastrophic costs.Model inputs for 7 low- and middle-income countries (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Ghana, Mexico, Tanzania, and Yemen) were retrieved by literature review and included countries' mean patient TB-related costs, mean household income, mean cash transfers, and estimated TB-specific and TB-sensitive target populations. Analyses were completed for drug-susceptible (DS) TB-related costs in all 7 out of 7 countries, and additionally for drug-resistant (DR) TB-related costs in 1 of the 7 countries with available data. All cost data were reported in 2013 international dollars ($). The target population for TB-specific cash transfers was poor households with a confirmed TB diagnosis, and for TB-sensitive cash transfers was poor households already targeted by countries' established poverty-reduction cash transfer programme. Cash transfers offered in countries, unrelated to TB, ranged from $217 to $1,091/year/household. Before cash transfers, DS TB-related costs were catastrophic in 6 out of 7 countries. If cash transfers were provided with a TB-specific approach, alone they would be insufficient to prevent DS TB catastrophic costs in 4 out of 6 countries, and when increased enough to prevent DS TB catastrophic costs would require a budget between $3.8 million (95% CI: $3.8 million-$3.8 million) and $75 million (95% CI: $50 million-$100 million) per country. If instead cash transfers were provided with a TB-sensitive approach, alone they would be insufficient to prevent DS TB-related catastrophic costs in any of the 6 countries, and when increased enough to prevent DS TB catastrophic costs would require a budget between $298 million (95% CI: $219 million-$378 million) and $165,367 million (95% CI: $134,085 million-$196,425 million) per country. DR TB-related costs were catastrophic before and after TB-specific or TB-sensitive cash transfers in 1 out of 1 countries. Sensitivity analyses showed our findings to be robust to imputation of missing TB-related cost components, and use of 10% or 30% instead of 20% as the threshold for measuring catastrophic costs. Key limitations were using national average data and not considering other health and social benefits of cash transfers.A TB-sensitive cash transfer approach to increase all poor households' income may have broad benefits by reducing poverty, but is unlikely to be as effective or affordable for preventing TB catastrophic costs as a TB-specific cash transfer approach to defray TB-related costs only in poor households with a confirmed TB diagnosis. Preventing DR TB-related catastrophic costs will require considerable additional investment whether a TB-sensitive or a TB-specific cash transfer approach is used.

Project description:BackgroundAlthough tuberculosis (TB) care is free in Tanzania, TB-associated costs may compromise access to services and treatment adherence resulting in poor outcomes and increased risk of transmission in the community. TB can impact economically patients and their households. We assessed the economic burden of TB on patients and their households in Tanzania and identified cost drivers to inform policies and programs for potential interventions to mitigate costs.MethodsWe conducted a nationally representative cross-sectional survey using a standard methodology recommended by World Health Organization. TB patients of all ages and with all types of TB from 30 clusters across Tanzania were interviewed during July - September 2019. We used the human capital approach to assess the indirect costs and a threshold of 20% of the household annual expenditure to determine the proportion of TB-affected households experiencing catastrophic cost. We descriptively analyzed the cost data and fitted multivariable logistic regression models to identify potential predictors of catastrophic costs.ResultsOf the 777 TB-affected households, 44.9% faced catastrophic costs due to TB. This proportion was higher (80.0%) among households of patients with multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). Overall, cost was driven by income loss while accessing TB services (33.7%), nutritional supplements (32.6%), and medical costs (15.1%). Most income loss was associated with hospitalization and time for picking up TB drugs. Most TB patients (85.9%) reported worsening financial situations due to TB, and over fifty percent (53.0%) borrowed money or sold assets to finance TB treatment. In multivariable analysis, the factors associated with catastrophic costs included hospitalization (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 34.9; 95% confidence interval (CI):12.5-146.17), living in semi-urban (aOR = 1.6; 95% CI:1.0-2.5) or rural areas (aOR = 2.6; 95% CI:1.8-3.7), having MDR-TB (aOR = 3.4; 95% CI:1.2-10.9), and facility-based directly-observed treatment (DOT) (aOR = 7.2; 95% CI:2.4-26.6).ConclusionWe found that the cost of TB care is catastrophic for almost half of the TB-affected households in Tanzania; our findings support the results from other surveys recently conducted in sub-Saharan Africa. Collaborative efforts across health, employment and social welfare sectors are imperative to minimize household costs due to TB disease and improve access to care, patient adherence and outcomes.

Project description:BackgroundThe internal rural-to-urban migration is one of the major challenges for tuberculosis (TB) control in China. Patient costs incurred during TB diagnosis and treatment could cause access and adherence barriers, particularly among migrants. Here, we estimated the prevalence of catastrophic costs of TB patients and its associated factors in an urban population with internal migrants in China.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted to enroll culture-confirmed pulmonary TB patients in Songjiang district, Shanghai, between December 1, 2014, and December 31, 2015. Consenting participants completed a questionnaire, which collected direct and indirect costs before and after the diagnosis of TB. The catastrophic cost was defined as the annual expenses of TB care that exceeds 20% of total household disposable income. We used logistic regression to identify factors associated with catastrophic costs.ResultsOverall, 248 drug-susceptible TB patients were enrolled, 70% (174/248) of them were from migrants. Migrant patients were significantly younger compared to resident patients. The total costs were 25,824 ($3689) and 13,816 ($1974) Chinese Yuan (RMB) in average for resident and migrant patients, respectively. The direct medical cost comprised about 70% of the total costs among both migrant and resident patients. Overall, 55% (132 of 248) of patients experienced high expenses (>10% of total household income), and 22% (55 of 248) experienced defined catastrophic costs. The reimbursement for TB care only reduced the prevalence of catastrophic costs to 20% (49 of 248). Meanwhile, 52% (90 of 174) of the internal migrants had no available local health insurance. Hospitalizations, no available insurance, and older age (> 45-year-old) contributed significantly to the occurrence of catastrophic costs.ConclusionsThe catastrophic cost of TB service cannot be overlooked, despite the free policy. Migrants have difficulties benefiting from health insurance in urban cities. Interventions, including expanded medical financial assistance, are needed to secure universal TB care.

Project description:IntroductionTuberculosis (TB) disproportionally affects poor people, leading to income and non-income losses. Measures of socioeconomic impact of TB, e.g. impoverishment and patient costs are inadequate to capture non-income losses. We applied impoverishment and a multidimensional measure on TB and non-TB affected households in Zimbabwe.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study in 270 households: 90 non-TB; 90 drug-susceptible TB (DS-TB), 90 drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021). Household data included ownership of assets, number of household members, income and indicators on five capital assets: financial, human, social, natural and physical. We determined proportions of impoverished households for periods 12 months prior and at the time of the interview. Households with incomes below US$1.90/day were considered to be impoverished. We used principal component analysis on five capital asset indicators to create a binary outcome variable indicating loss of livelihood. Log-binomial regression was used to determine associations between loss of livelihood and type of household.ResultsTB-affected households reported higher previous episodes of TB and household members requiring care than non-TB households. Households that were impoverished 12 months prior to the study were: 21 non-TB (23%); 40 DS-TB (45%); 37 DR-TB (41%). The proportions increased to 81%, 88% and 94%, respectively by the time of interview. Overall, 56% (152/270) of households sold assets: 44% (40/90) non-TB, 58% (52/90) DS-TB and 67% (60/90) DR-TB. Children's education was affected in 31% (56/180) of TB-affected compared to 13% (12/90) non-TB households. Overall, 133(50%) households experienced loss of livelihood, with TB-affected households twice as likely to experience loss of livelihood; adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR=2.02 (95%CI:1.35-3.03)). The effect of TB on livelihood was most pronounced in poorest households (aPR=2.64, (95%CI:1.29-5.41)).ConclusionsTB-affected households experienced greater socioeconomic losses compared to non-TB households. Multidimensional measures of TB are crucial to inform multisectoral approaches to mitigate impacts of TB and other shocks.

Project description:BackgroundDespite free diagnosis and treatment for tuberculosis (TB), the costs during treatment impose a significant financial burden on patients and their households. The study sought to identify the determinants for catastrophic costs among patients with drug-sensitive TB (DSTB) and their households in Kenya.MethodsThe data was collected during the 2017 Kenya national patient cost survey from a nationally representative sample (n = 1071). Treatment related costs and productivity losses were estimated. Total costs exceeding 20% of household income were defined as catastrophic and used as the outcome. Multivariable Poisson regression analysis was performed to measure the association between selected individual, household and disease characteristics and occurrence of catastrophic costs. A deterministic sensitivity analysis was carried using different thresholds and the significant predictors were explored.ResultsThe proportion of catastrophic costs among DSTB patients was 27% (n = 294). Patients with catastrophic costs had higher median productivity losses, 39 h [interquartile range (IQR): 20-104], and total median costs of USD 567 (IQR: 299-1144). The incidence of catastrophic costs had a dose response with household expenditure. The poorest quintile was 6.2 times [95% confidence intervals (CI): 4.0-9.7] more likely to incur catastrophic costs compared to the richest. The prevalence of catastrophic costs decreased with increasing household expenditure quintiles (proportion of catastrophic costs: 59.7%, 32.9%, 23.6%, 15.9%, and 9.5%) from the lowest quintile (Q1) to the highest quintile (Q5). Other determinants included hospitalization: prevalence ratio (PR) = 2.8 (95% CI: 1.8-4.5) and delayed treatment: PR = 1.5 (95% CI: 1.3-1.7). Protective factors included receiving care at a public health facility: PR = 0.8 (95% CI: 0.6-1.0), and a higher body mass index (BMI): PR = 0.97 (95% CI: 0.96-0.98). Pre TB expenditure, hospitalization and BMI were significant predictors in all sensitivity analysis scenarios.ConclusionsThere are significant inequities in the occurrence of catastrophic costs. Social protection interventions in addition to existing medical and public health interventions are important to implement for patients most at risk of incurring catastrophic costs.

Dataset Information

Inequity in catastrophic costs among tuberculosis-affected households in China.

Background

Methods

Results

Publications

Inequity in catastrophic costs among tuberculosis-affected households in China.

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