[A cross-sectional study on economic burden of pulmonary tuberculosis cases from designated tuberculosis hospital]

Objective: To understand the medical expenditure and related household economic burden of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients receiving full course treatment in designated TB hospitals in China and identify the related factors. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 535 consecutive TB patients receiving TB treatment from April 2017 to June 2017 in 5 designated TB hospitals in eastern and western China selected through stratified cluster sampling. A questionnaire was used to collect the information about patients' social economic characteristics and TB diagnosis and treatment expenditure. Results: The average total medical expenditure for TB treatment was 12 635.5 yuan (RMB), in which the direct medical expenditure accounted for 65.3% of the total. Nearly half of the total medical expenditure occurred in pre-treatment period. The expenditure in pre- treatment period was higher in the patients with low education level, newly treated patients, and initial sputum negative patients. The median (quartile) for the ratio of total medical expenditure to annual household income was 22%(10%-57%). Ordinal logistic regression analysis showed that low-level education background, lower household income, hospitalization and suffering from other chronic disease might increase the ratio of medical expenditure to annual household income. Conclusions: Medical expenditure for full course TB treatment is still high in patients in designated TB hospitals. It is suggested to strengthen the capability building of timely found and referral of TB patients in non- designated hospitals and improve fee reduction and exemption policy for some patients.