Abstract:
Objective: This study aimed to identify the factors associated with outpatient expenses
incurred by households in Kenya.
Background: The problem of outpatient healthcare expenses incurred by citizens in
countries with limited resources has received little attention. Thus, this study aimed to
determine the predictors of household spending on outpatient expenses in Kenya.
Method: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis on households in Kenya using data
from the 2018 Kenya Household Health Expenditure and Utilization Survey. We applied
the generalized estimating equations method to determine the best subset of predictors
of outpatient care cost.
Findings: The best predictors of outpatient care expenses in Kenya are age, wealth
index, and education level of the household head.
Conclusions: There were no differences regarding age in the mean spending on
outpatient care. Moreover, we found that the cost of outpatient care changes with age
in a sinusoidal manner. We observed that rich households spent more on outpatient
care, mostly owing to their financial ability. Households whose heads reported primary
or secondary school education level spent less on outpatient costs than households
headed by those who never went to school