Factors Explaining Catastrophic Health Expenditure and HouseholdImpoverishment in Cameroon

Abstract

The objective of this article is to study the exposure of Cameroonian households to the financial risk linked to catastrophic health expenditure. The study population is made up of households and the data used come from the fourth Cameroon Household Survey conducted in 2014. The statistical and econometric methods deployed are essentially descriptive statistics, hypothesis tests and logistic regression. Analyzes show that Cameroonian households spend an average of 5% of their total expenditure on health. Medication, used primarily by poor households, represents the first health service, followed by consultation and hospitalization, much more used by rich households. A significant proportion of Cameroonian households (10.33%) devote at least 10% of their income to direct payment for health care and services. The incidence of impoverishment due to these direct payments is 1.29%. The socioeconomic characteristics of Cameroonian households are the main determinants of their catastrophic health expenditures and their impoverishment due to direct payments for health care and services.