Out-of-pocket health expenditures and antimicrobial resistance in low-income and middle-income countries: an economic analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

The decreasing effectiveness of antimicrobial agents is a growing global public health concern. Low-income and middle-income countries are vulnerable to the loss of antimicrobial efficacy because of their high burden of infectious disease and the cost of treating resistant organisms. We aimed to assess if copayments in the public sector promoted the development of antibiotic resistance by inducing patients to purchase treatment from less well regulated private providers.

Methods

We analysed data from the WHO 2014 Antibacterial Resistance Global Surveillance report. We assessed the importance of out-of-pocket spending and copayment requirements for public sector drugs on the level of bacterial resistance in low-income and middle-income countries, using linear reg

SUBMITTER: Alsan M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4609169 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature