TY - JOUR
T1 - Affordability Assessment from a Static to Dynamic Concept
T2 - A Scenario-Based Assessment of Cardiovascular Medicines
AU - Zarei , Leila
AU - Karimzadeh, Iman
AU - Moradi , Najmeh
AU - Peymani , Payam
AU - Asadi , Sara
AU - Babar, Zaheer-Ud-Din
PY - 2020/3/5
Y1 - 2020/3/5
N2 - The out‐of‐pocket payments for prescription medications can impose a financial burden on patients from low‐ and middle‐ incomes and who suffer from chronic diseases. The present study aims at evaluating the affordability of cardiovascular disease (CVD) medication in Iran. This includes measuring affordability through World Health Organization/Health Action International (WHO/HAI) methodology. In this method, affordability is characterized as the number of daysʹ wages of the lowest‐paid unskilled government worker. The different medication therapy scenarios are defined in mono‐and combination therapy approaches. This method adds on to WHO/HAI methodology to discover new approaches to affordability assessments. The results show the differences in the medicines affordability when different approaches are used in mono‐and combination therapy between 6 main sub‐therapeutic groups of CVD. It indicates the medicine affordability is not a static concept and it changes dynamically between CVD therapeutic subgroups when it used alone or in combination with other medicines regarding patients’ characteristics and medical conditions. Hypertension and anti‐arrhythmia therapeutic groups had the most non-affordability and hyperlipidemia had the most affordable medicines. Therefore, affordability can be considered as a dynamic concept, which not only affected by the medicine price but significantly affected by a patient’s characteristics, the number of medical conditions, and insurance coverage.
AB - The out‐of‐pocket payments for prescription medications can impose a financial burden on patients from low‐ and middle‐ incomes and who suffer from chronic diseases. The present study aims at evaluating the affordability of cardiovascular disease (CVD) medication in Iran. This includes measuring affordability through World Health Organization/Health Action International (WHO/HAI) methodology. In this method, affordability is characterized as the number of daysʹ wages of the lowest‐paid unskilled government worker. The different medication therapy scenarios are defined in mono‐and combination therapy approaches. This method adds on to WHO/HAI methodology to discover new approaches to affordability assessments. The results show the differences in the medicines affordability when different approaches are used in mono‐and combination therapy between 6 main sub‐therapeutic groups of CVD. It indicates the medicine affordability is not a static concept and it changes dynamically between CVD therapeutic subgroups when it used alone or in combination with other medicines regarding patients’ characteristics and medical conditions. Hypertension and anti‐arrhythmia therapeutic groups had the most non-affordability and hyperlipidemia had the most affordable medicines. Therefore, affordability can be considered as a dynamic concept, which not only affected by the medicine price but significantly affected by a patient’s characteristics, the number of medical conditions, and insurance coverage.
KW - Cardiovascular disease
KW - Affordability
KW - scenario-based assessment
KW - Medication cost
KW - Middle-income countries
KW - Health care system
KW - Scenario‐based assessment
KW - Middle‐income countries
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85081120853&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph17051710
DO - 10.3390/ijerph17051710
M3 - Article
VL - 17
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
SN - 1661-7827
IS - 5
M1 - 1710
ER -
