Department of Health Management, Economics and Policy Making, School of Management and Medical Informatics, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
Department of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
BMC Int Health Hum Rights. 2019 Jul 31;19(1):23. doi: 10.1186/s12914-019-0210-x.
One of the main treatment procedures is through medicine prescription. Considering the rising burden of drug costs, we conducted this study to estimate the impoverishing effects of medicine on Iranian households.
We carried out calculations based on the Iranian National Household Survey for the year 2013. Amoxicillin, atorvastatin and metformin were the drugs selected. Three different poverty lines were applied. Impoverishment was estimated for various scenarios. Additionally, the associations of some demographic factors were tested. Excel 2013 and SPSS v.19 were used.
Many households fell under the poverty line after purchasing drugs. Procuring original brand (OB) drugs caused more poverty than lowest-priced generic (LPG) equivalents. The logistic regression testing showed that the age, gender and literacy of the head of household and the size of the household were associated with impoverishment.
This study showed that purchasing medicines increases the impoverishment risk of households. This risk is an index used to assess financial protection against health costs, which is in turn an indicator of health equity. The results will be of practical use for policymakers when addressing different scenarios of setting medicines prices as well as when considering alternatives for cost shifting for cross subsidies in pharmaceutical procurement.
主要的治疗方法之一是通过开药方。考虑到药品费用负担不断增加，我们进行了这项研究，以评估药品对伊朗家庭的致贫效应。
我们根据 2013 年伊朗家庭调查进行了计算。选择了阿莫西林、阿托伐他汀和二甲双胍这三种药物。应用了三种不同的贫困线。对各种情况进行了贫困估计。此外，还测试了一些人口统计学因素的相关性。使用了 Excel 2013 和 SPSS v.19。
许多家庭在购买药品后陷入贫困线以下。购买原研药（OB）比最便宜的仿制药（LPG）等效药物导致更多的贫困。逻辑回归测试表明，家庭户主的年龄、性别和文化程度以及家庭规模与贫困有关。
本研究表明，购买药品会增加家庭陷入贫困的风险。这一风险是评估医疗费用财务保障的指标，也是健康公平的指标。在制定药品价格的不同方案以及考虑药品采购交叉补贴成本转移的替代方案时，这些结果将为政策制定者提供实际用途。
