BACKGROUND Smoking remains very common in Chinese men, and the economic burden caused by cigarette consumption on smokers and their families may be substantial. Using a large nationally representative household survey, the third National Health Services Survey (NHSS, 2003), we estimated the economic impact of smoking on households. METHODS Smoking status of all household members (over 15 year...

Despite health systems improvements in Tanzania, gaps in the continuum of care for maternal, newborn and child health persist. Recent improvements have largely benefited those over one month of age, leading to a greater proportion of under-five mortality in newborns. Community health workers providing home-based counselling have been championed as uniquely qualified to reach the poorest. We pro...

OBJECTIVE To assess the relative costs of accessing a TB diagnosis for the poor and for women in urban Lilongwe, Malawi, a setting where public health services are accessible within 6 kilometers and provided free of charge. METHODS Patient and household direct and opportunity costs were assessed from a survey of 179 TB patients, systematically sampled from all public and mission health facili...

BACKGROUND The first month of life is the period with the highest risk of dying. Despite knowledge of effective interventions, newborn mortality is high and utilization of health care services remains low in Ethiopia. In settings without universal health coverage, the economy of a household is vulnerable to illness, and out-of-pocket payments may limit families' opportunities to seek health car...

OBJECTIVES This prospective cohort study sought to estimate health system and household costs for episodes of diarrhoeal illness in Malawi. SETTING Data were collected in two Malawian settings: a rural health centre in Chilumba and an urban tertiary care hospital in Blantyre. PARTICIPANTS Children under 5 years of age presenting with diarrhoeal disease between 1 January 2013 and 21 November...

The paper describes a cross-sectional household survey conducted in randomly-selected villages in rural Ethiopia to assess strategies of households for coping with financial and time costs of illness. Results of the survey showed that the average monthly household health expenditure was 32.87 Birr (about 4.1 US dollars [1 US dollar = 8 Birr at the time of study]). In addition, the average time ...

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, associated with severe liver disease and cancer, affects 70 million people worldwide. New treatments with direct-acting-antivirals offer cure for about 95% of affected individuals; however, treatment costs may be prohibitive in both the poorest and richest nations. Opting for cure may require sacrificing essential household ass...

Air pollutants often have adverse effects on human health. This paper investigates and ranks a set of policy and technological interventions intended to reduce such health costs in the high population density areas of South Africa. It initially uses a simple benefit-cost rule, later extended to capture sectoral employment impacts. Although the focus of state air quality legislation is on indust...