title: Iranian Households' Payments on Food and Health Out-of-Pocket Expenditures: Evidence of Inequality.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Inequality in households' payments on food and health expenditures presents the accessibility and utilization patterns between them. This study investigated the Iranian rural and urban households' inequality in payments on food and Out-of-Pocket health expenditures from 1998 to 2012.
  
  
  METHODS
  This descriptive study was conducted through the analysis of Iranian Statistics Centre data on Iranian households' income and expenditures. The Gini Coefficients, Concentration and Kakwani indices have been calculated for Iranian rural and urban households' Out-of-Pocket health and food expenditures.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The means of Iranian rural and urban total consumption expenditures inequality were 0.48 and 0.48, respectively. The means of concentration index of food expenditures for rural and urban regions were 0.35 and 0.34, respectively. The means of Out-of-Pocket payments for health services for rural and urban regions were 0.51 and 0.5, respectively. Finally the means of Kakwani index of Out-of-Pocket health payments in rural and urban households were -0.005 and -0.018, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There are relative high levels of inequality in Iranian households' payments on food and Out-of-Pocket health expenditures.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Health Economics, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hesam
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ghiasvand
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Health Services Management, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyran
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naghdi
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Nazanin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Abolhassani
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Health Services Management, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Nasrin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shaarbafchizadeh
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Javad
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moghri
keywords: Concentration index; Food expenditure; Gini coefficient; Inequality; Kakwani index; Out-of-Pocket health expenditure