Iranian Households’ Payments on Food and Health Out-of-Pocket Expenditures: Evidence of Inequality

• Main Authors: Hesam GHIASVAND, Seyran NAGHDI, Nazanin ABOLHASSANI, Nasrin SHAARBAFCHIZADEH, Javad MOGHRI
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2015-10-01
• Series: Iranian Journal of Public Health
• Subjects: Food expenditure; Out-of-Pocket health expenditure; Inequality; Gini coefficient; Concentration index; Kakwani index
• Online Access: https://ijph.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijph/article/view/3360

Background: Inequality in households’ payments on food and health expenditures presents the accessibility and utili-zation patterns between them. This study investigated the Iranian rural and urban households’ inequality in payments on food and Out-of-Pocket health expenditures from 1998 to 2012. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted through the analysis of Iranian Statistics Centre data on Iranian households’ income and expenditures. The Gini Coefficients, Concentration and Kakwani indices have been calculat-ed for Iranian rural and urban households’ Out-of-Pocket health and food expenditures. Results: The means of Iranian rural and urban total consumption expenditures inequality were 0.48 and 0.48, respec-tively. The means of concentration index of food expenditures for rural and urban regions were 0.35 and 0.34, respec-tively. The means of Out-of-Pocket payments for health services for rural and urban regions were 0.51 and 0.5, re-spectively. Finally the means of Kakwani index of Out-of-Pocket health payments in rural and urban households were -0.005 and -0.018, respectively. Conclusion: There are relative high levels of inequality in Iranian households’ payments on food and Out-of-Pocket health expenditures.