Journal article
Economic impacts of health shocks on households in low and middle income countries: a review of the literature
Globalization and health, Vol.10(1), pp.21-21
2014
PMCID: PMC4108100
PMID: 24708831
Abstract
Poor health is a source of impoverishment among households in low -and middle- income countries (LMICs) and a subject of voluminous literature in recent years. This paper reviews recent empirical literature on measuring the economic impacts of health shocks on households. Key inclusion criteria were studies that explored household level economic outcomes (burden of out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending, labour supply responses and non-medical consumption) of health shocks and sought to correct for the likely endogeneity of health shocks, in addition to studies that measured catastrophic and impoverishment effects of ill health. The review only considered literature in the English language and excluded studies published before 2000 since these have been included in previous reviews. We identified 105 relevant articles, reports, and books. Our review confirmed the major conclusion of earlier reviews based on the pre-2000 literature - that households in LMICs bear a high but variable burden of OOP health expenditure. Households use a range of sources such as income, savings, borrowing, using loans or mortgages, and selling assets and livestock to meet OOP health spending. Health shocks also cause significant reductions in labour supply among households in LMICs, and households (particularly low-income ones) are unable to fully smooth income losses from moderate and severe health shocks. Available evidence rejects the hypothesis of full consumption insurance in the face of major health shocks. Our review suggests additional research on measuring and harmonizing indicators of health shocks and economic outcomes, measuring economic implications of non-communicable diseases for households and analyses based on longitudinal data. Policymakers need to include non-health system interventions, including access to credit and disability insurance in addition to support formal insurance programs to ameliorate the economic impacts of health shocks.
Details
- Title
- Economic impacts of health shocks on households in low and middle income countries: a review of the literature
- Authors/Creators
- Khurshid Alam - Monash UniversityAjay Mahal - The Alfred Hospital
- Publication Details
- Globalization and health, Vol.10(1), pp.21-21
- Publisher
- Springer Nature
- Number of pages
- 18
- Grant note
- Alan and Elizabeth Finkel Chair in Global Health Endeavour International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS); Australian Government Australian Postgraduate Award (APA); Australian Government
- Identifiers
- 991005591503207891
- Copyright
- © 2014 Alam and Mahal
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Centre for Healthy Ageing
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: InCites
Metrics
2 File views/ downloads
86 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Citation topics
- 1 Clinical & Life Sciences
- 1.156 Healthcare Policy
- 1.156.381 Maternal Health Equity
- Web Of Science research areas
- Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
- ESI research areas
- Social Sciences, general