Who Spends More on Health Expenditures among Elderly? Men or Women?

Abstract

Women face various health problems during their lives. This has an impact on health costs that must be paid. Gender bias tends to place women in subordinate positions, so they have limited power in making a decision. This study aimed to examine whether gender is a factor impacting health expenditures among the elderly. A cross-sectional study based on the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) wave 5 included all elderly who accessed self-medication and health services in health facilities during the past 12 months (n=6773). Data regarding outpatient, inpatient, and self-medication costs was obtained from section RJ, RN, and PS from book 3B IFLS wave 5. The health costs that come out of the personal pocket resulted from the total cost of treatment that paid for self-medication, outpatient, and inpatient. Independent T-Test was performed to analyze the difference in health expenditure between elderly males and females. This study found that the average health expenditure was higher among elderly males (IDR 471,011; SD 7,103,932.7) than females (IDR 296,969.9; SD 2,552,816.4), but it was not statistically significant (p=0.195). Based on the type of health expenditure, there was no significant difference in self-medication spending between elderly males and females, as well as in outpatient and inpatient expenditures (p>0.05). Nevertheless, elderly males tended to spend more money on self-medication, outpatient, and inpatient services than females. It concluded that health expenditures between elderly males and females were almost the same. Gender equality in health care was addressed to establish universal health coverage.
 Keywords: gender, health expenditure, IFLS, elderly, out-of-pocket