NCT05239104

Laos Out-Of-Pocket Costs: an Observational Study on the Impact of Severe Childhood Illness on the Health, Wealth and Wellbeing of Household Members in Laos

Laos Out-Of-Pocket Costs: an Observational Study on the Impact of Severe Childhood Illness on the Health, Wealth and Wellbeing of Household Members in Lao People's Democratic Republic

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 400 (actual)
• Sponsor: Murdoch Childrens Research Institute · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 1 Month – 15 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This will be a prospective longitudinal study of children attending hospital for treatment of a severe illness with community follow-up in Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). The study aims to summarise and describe short-term health and economic impacts of a severe childhood illness requiring hospital admission, from a household perspective.

Detailed description

This study aims to measure the out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses for households related to a severe acute illness/injury in children under five years presenting to hospitals in Lao PDR. Financial protection will be measured by determining proportions of households led to catastrophic health expenditures and impoverishment from OOP expenses, with further equity analyses across wealth quintiles, geographical residence, sex, parental education and ethnic subpopulations. Physical health and mental wellbeing outcomes of participants and household members will also be assessed to determine the multifaceted impact of severe childhood disease on a household. Participants will be recruited in outpatients, the emergency department (ED) or during hospital admission. Information on the participant's illness will be collected through health records where available. Household demographic data, financial costs and coping strategies associated with illness and health/wellbeing outcomes will be collected through parent/caregiver structured questionnaires. These will be conducted during presentation to outpatients/ED or during admission on the wards, with follow-up at 2 weeks and at 2 months post-presentation or post-discharge. Average total household out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses associated with the illness will be presented for the study population. An equity analysis will be performed by disaggregating and comparing mean/median OOP costs across wealth quintiles, sex, geographical location, parental education and ethnic groups.

Conditions

• Health Care Economics
• Child Health
• Cost of Illness
• Burden of Illness

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	No intervention	This is an observational study with no intervention

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-11-01
• Primary completion: 2024-01-10
• Completion: 2024-01-10
• First posted: 2022-02-14
• Last updated: 2024-05-02

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Laos