health expenditure modelling in southeast of iran: a population-based setting using quantile regression perspective

Background: equity in health is the focus of attention in the world health circles in recent decades. the financing of household health expenditure is, therefore, a concern in any region. objectives: the current study aimed at exploring the determinants of household health expenditure in sistan and baluchistan province, southeast of iran. methods: the data of the current study were a part of the iranian households’ income and expenditure survey, administered by the iranian statistical center (isc) from march 2013 to march 2014. a 3-stage stratified cluster sampling method was employed in the current cross sectional survey. a total of 1391 households from sistan and baluchistan province were randomly selected. the study employed quantile regression modelling to determine the effective explanatory variables of household health expenses. r programming language version 3.3.2 was used for data analysis. results: it was found that annual median per capita medical expenditure was us$ 5.36 (first quartile = 0; third quartile = 38.31). households also spent about 3.9% of their annual income on health expenses per capita. literacy, occupational status of household head, and family income had significant effect on the median of household health expenses. conclusions: researchers and policy makers should pay more attention to household health expenses, as it is an important matter in the low-income and deprived areas.