Cost and sources of financing treatment of hypertension in patients attending a tertiary health care centre in a developing country: a cross-sectional review

Background

Hypertension is a chronic medical disorder of global importance, with increasing prevalence and economic burden. The monetary cost of treating hypertension could cause a serious economic hardship for patients, their households, and the community. Understanding the cost of treatment of hypertension, source of funding for the treatment and the payment mechanism is important for the development of effective healthcare policy and intervention.

Methodology

The study design was a cross-sectional review of patients’ financing of their hypertension care using a structured questionnaire to obtain relevant information from participants attending hypertension clinics.

Results

A total of 208 patients who were on treatment for hypertension were included in the study, 129 (62%) were females, and 79 (38) were males. Half (50%) of the participants pay out of pocket for their medications and 99 (47.5%) participants have family members paying for their medication.

Market survey of cost of the commonly prescribed anti-hypertensive drugs in the community pharmacies showed that diuretic agents are the cheapest and generic medications are relatively cheaper compared to the branded anti-hypertensive agents.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this study showed that most of our patients still pay out of pocket for their medications, most patients with hypertension seen in our clinics are on at least three antihypertensive medications and that the use of generic medications is cheaper compared to the branded ones and this is recommended for patients attending hypertension clinics in developing countries.