Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Apr 27;22(1):568.
doi: 10.1186/s12913-022-07922-6.

Financial burden of catastrophic health expenditure on households with chronic diseases: financial ratio analysis

Hyunwoo Jung  1 , Young Dae Kwon  2 , Jin-Won Noh  3
Affiliations

Financial burden of catastrophic health expenditure on households with chronic diseases: financial ratio analysis

Hyunwoo Jung et al. BMC Health Serv Res. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: The financial status of households is vulnerable to chronic diseases which entail high medical expenses and income loss. Financial strain can be assessed by four indicators: a household surplus indicator, the liquid asset/debt ratio, a solvency indicator, and a liquidity indicator. We investigated the association between catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) and financial ratio indicators in households with chronic diseases in South Korea.

Methods: This study applied thresholds to the financial ratios to determine the financial strain. We conducted multiple logistic regression analyses to determine whether CHE is associated with financial strain. Furthermore, we analyzed the relationship between CHE and basic financial indicators, absolute finance size, using multiple linear regression.

Results: When CHE occurred, all financial ratio indicators deteriorated. However, this was not due to decreases in the absolute size of wealth and income, but rather the relative balance between finances. In particular, the loss of liquid assets was a major factor in the deterioration. In addition, all types of labor-related income deteriorated; only private transfer income increased.

Conclusions: This study revealed that CHE in households with chronic diseases negatively impacts household finances. It was found that financial coping strategies are only resource consuming.

Keywords: Catastrophic health expenditure; Chronic disease; Financial strain.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

References

    1. Wagstaff A, Flores G, Hsu J, Smitz MF, Chepynoga K, Buisman LR, et al. Progress on catastrophic health spending in 133 countries: A retrospective observational study. Lancet Glob Health. 2018;6(2):e169–e179. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(17)30429-1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wagstaff A, Lindelow M. Can insurance increase financial risk?: The curious case of health insurance in China. J Health Econ. 2008;27(4):990–1005. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2008.02.002. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Choi JW, Choi JW, Kim JH, Yoo KB, Park EC. Association between chronic disease and catastrophic health expenditure in Korea. BMC Health Serv Res. 2015;15(1):26. doi: 10.1186/s12913-014-0675-1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jakovljevic M, Jakab M, Gerdtham U, McDaid D, Ogura S, Varavikova E, et al. Comparative financing analysis and political economy of noncommunicable diseases. J Med Econ. 2019;22(8):722–727. doi: 10.1080/13696998.2019.1600523. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kankeu HT, Saksena P, Xu K, Evans DB. The financial burden from non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries: A literature review. Health Res Pol Syst. 2013;11(1):31. doi: 10.1186/1478-4505-11-31. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources