Assessment of cost of tuberculosis to patients and their families: a cross-sectional study at Addet Health Center, Yilmana Densa District, Amhara National Regional State.

INTRODUCTION

The rising number of tuberculosis cases is putting a considerable strain on health budgets, and threatens to drain resources essential to health and welfare services.

OBJECTIVES

The objective of this study was to estimate the cost of tuberculosis to outpatients and their families in a rural district health center, Addet Health Center, Yilmana Densa District, Amhara National Regional State in Ethiopia.

METHODS

Cross-sectional study was conducted to estimate the cost of tuberculosis to outpatients and their families. Data were collected on diagnosis, treatment, transportation, food and other expenses, and also income losses due to tuberculosis before and after the diagnosis of tuberculosis. Data were entered to Epi-Info and transferred to SPSS 13 for analysis. Mean, median, range and standard deviation were used to describe the data.

RESULT

The mean direct cost and indirect cost of tuberculosis to outpatients and their families were 1078.00 Birr and 2080.43 Birr, respectively, at the time of study. The mean total cost of tuberculosis to outpatients and their families was 3159.23 Birr.

CONCLUSION

Cost of tuberculosis to patients and their families, especially before the identification of the disease was found to be very high. Therefore, consequences of tuberculosis to patients and their families are particularly serious and potentially devastating.