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. 2022 Mar 11;19(6):3325.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19063325.

Financial Burden of Medical Care, Dental Care, and Medicines among Older-Aged Population in Slovenia, Serbia, and Croatia

Katarina Vojvodic  1 , Zorica Terzic-Supic  2 , Jovana Todorovic  2 , Cristina Gagliardi  3 , Milena Santric-Milicevic  2 , Marina Popovic  4
Affiliations

Financial Burden of Medical Care, Dental Care, and Medicines among Older-Aged Population in Slovenia, Serbia, and Croatia

Katarina Vojvodic et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The aim was to explore the factors associated with the financial burden (FB) of medical care, dental care, and medicines among older-aged people in Slovenia, Serbia, and Croatia using EU-SILC 2017. The highest frequency of FB of medical care and medicines was in Croatia (50% and 69.1%, respectively) and of dental care in Slovenia (48.5%). The multivariate logistic regression analysis with FB as an outcome variable showed that the FB of medical care was associated with being married (OR: 1.54), reporting not severe (OR: 1.51) and severe limitations in daily activities (OR: 2.05), having higher education (OR: 2.03), and heavy burden of housing costs (OR: 0.51) in Slovenia, with very bad self-perceived health (OR: 5.23), having the slight (OR: 0.69) or heavy (OR: 0.47) burden of housing costs, making ends meet fairly easily or with some difficulty (OR: 3.58) or with difficulty or great difficulty (OR: 6.80) in Serbia, and with being married (OR: 1.43), having heavy burden of housing costs (OR: 0.62), and making ends meet fairly easily or with some difficulty (OR: 2.08) or with difficulty or great difficulty (OR: 2.52) in Croatia. The older-aged have the FB of healthcare, especially the poorest or those with health problems.

Keywords: dental care; financial burden; healthcare; likelihood; medical care; medicines; older-aged.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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