title: The economic burden of angina on households in South Asia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Globally, an estimated 54 million people have angina, 16 million of whom are from the WHO South-East Asia region. Despite the increasing burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in South Asia, there is no evidence of an economic burden of angina on households in this region. We investigated the economic burden of angina on households in South Asia.
  
  
  METHODS
  We applied a novel propensity score matching approach to assess the economic burden of angina on household out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending, borrowing or selling assets, non-medical consumption expenditure, and employment status of angina-affected individual using nationally representative World Health Survey data from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka collected during 2002-2003. We used multiple matching methods to match households where the respondent reported symptomatic or diagnosed angina with control households with similar propensity scores.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Angina-affected households had significantly higher OOP health spending per person in the four weeks preceding the survey than matched controls, in Bangladesh (I$1.94, p = 0.04), in Nepal (I$4.68, p = 0.03) and in Sri Lanka (I$1.99, p < 0.01). Nearly half of this difference was accounted for by drug expenditures. Catastrophic spending, defined as the ratio of OOP health spending to total household expenditure in excess of 20%, was significantly higher in angina-affected households relative to matched controls in India (9.60%, p < 0.01), Nepal (4.90%, p = 0.02) and Sri Lanka (9.10%, p < 0.01). Angina-affected households significantly relied on borrowing or selling assets to finance OOP health expenses in Bangladesh (6%, p = 0.03), India (8.20%, p < 0.01) and Sri Lanka (7.80%, p = 0.01). However, impoverishment, non-medical consumption expenditure and employment status of the angina-affected individual remained mostly unaffected. We adjusted our estimates for comorbidities, but limitations on comorbidity data in the WHS mean that our results may be upwardly biased.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Households that had the respondent reporting angina in South Asia face an economic burden of OOP health expenses (primarily on drugs and other outpatient expenses), and tend to rely on borrowing or selling assets. Our analysis underscores the need to protect South Asian households from the financial burden of CVD.
authors.affiliation: Monash School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Monash University, 99 Commercial Road, The Alfred Centre, Melbourne, Vic, 3004, Australia. khurshid.alam@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Khurshid
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Alam
authors.forename: Ajay
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mahal
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000787:Angina Pectoris / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology; D001211:Asia, Western / Q000453:epidemiology; D001459:Bangladesh; D017281:Cost of Illness; D004651:Employment; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D005382:Financing, Personal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D057216:Propensity Score; D013188:Sri Lanka