Determinants of health expenditures of female-headed households in urban areas of Iran

With the increase of female-headed households and the vulnerability of the mental and physical health of these households, as well as the need to control and manage the health expenditures of female-headed households, this study aimed to investigate the determinants of health expenditures of female-headed households in urban areas of Iran.

This descriptive-analytical and applied study was conducted cross-sectional with the microeconomics approach. The sample size included 2645 female-headed households, which were randomly selected based on three-stage sampling method, city, block and household selection, and data were collected by the Statistics Center of Iran using the cost and income questionnaire of urban households. The models were estimated in Stata 14 software using the two-step Hackman method.

The results showed that the monthly health expenditures of the female-headed households were increased by an increase in income, insurance expenses and head household’s age by 0.099, 0.71 and 16046 Rials, respectively. Also, these expenditures with having a child under seven years old and an elderly person over 60 years old were increased by 737587 and 691909 Rials, respectively. Increasing in the female-headed households’ education level led to a decrease in monthly household health expenditures by 37,839 Rials.

Female-headed households with children or the elderly had higher health expenditures than other female-headed households, so it is recommended to increase insurance coverage for healthcare and services to reduce health expenditures and not face to catastrophic health expenditures. These households also allocated a large share of the increased income on health expenditures, so policies to increase the income of female-headed households through employment, increase in grants, and health subsidies are proposed.