Determinants of Health and the Cost of Catastrophic Health Expenses in Households

Due to the critical needs of health service needs of people, in the event of health problems cannot be the demand for health care services to address the health, deferred postponed in the incidence of health problems. On the other hand, health problems have been associated with many risks, and generally people are not able to predict when their the time of health problemsthem. Therefore, to determine the factors influencing the expenditures costs of catastrophic health problems spending is also growing should be studied.
In this study, data of household incomes and expenses in urban and rural areas in 1391 were used and analyzed by regression and logit models in Stata. Some variables such as the level of provincial deprivation were added to the model. Significant level was considered 0.1.
The share of health expenditure from household budget and the probability of catastrophic health expenditures were more in the following households: more developed regions (such as in Tehran), older head of household, more people older than 60 and younger than six years old, living in rural areas, tenants and less educated head of household.
This study highlighted the importance of a fair distribution of health facilities in urban and rural areas, protection of vulnerable groups such as elderlies, household housing, promoting literacy and public education, public insurance coverage and also further development of deprived areas. Also results of this study showed that three groups were the most vulnerable in the society: tenant families, poor families living in large cities, and elderly people .