Assessment of Household Catastrophic Total Cost of Tuberculosis and Its Determinants in Cairo; Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

uberculosis is an infectious disease and a leading global public health problem with 95% of its burden was reported in low and middle-income countries. One of the goals of End TB Strategy was zero TB affected household experiences catastrophic costs. Therefore, it is crucial for TB elimination programs to identify catastrophic costs and their main drivers, monitor financial hardship, and establish further health and social policy measures to prevent them. The objectives of this study were to measure the percent of catastrophic cost experienced by a sample of Egyptian TB patients in different treatment phases and to identify the determinants of the catastrophic household cost of TB among them. A standard interview questionnaire was adopted from WHO and applied on (151) Egyptian TB patients through face to face interviewing. The questionnaire includes four sections: Section I: socio-demographic characteristics of the studied patients, Section II: income related data, Section III: time loss and total cost at the pre-diagnosis period, and Section IV: time loss, total cost, and coping strategies during and after the current TB treatment phase. Study results revealed that the mean age of the patients was 39 ± 15.7years, 60.3% were males. About half of the