ArticleBMJ open2023
Out-of-pocket cost for medical care of injured patients presenting to emergency department of national hospital in Tanzania: a prospective cohort study.
Article in BMJ open, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Observational
- Management Outcomes of Variceal Bleeding in Northern Tanzania: Insights From a Single-Center Retrospective Analysis.JGH open : an open access journal of gastroenterology and hepatology · 2025Article
- The older the injured, the worse the outcomes: A comparison of injury patterns and in-hospital outcomes between younger and older adult trauma patients at a tertiary hospital in Northern Tanzania.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Impact of trauma systems on injury morbidity: important considerations for low-income and middle-income countries.Emergency medicine journal : EMJ · 2024Article
- Article
- Investigating sustainability challenges for the National Health Insurance Fund in Tanzania: a modelling approach.BMJ open · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveWe aimed to determine the out-of-pocket (OOP) costs for medical care of injured patients and the proportion of patients encountering catastrophic costs.
designProspective cohort study
settingEmergency department (ED) of a tertiary-level hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
participantsInjured adult patients seen at the ED of Muhimbili National Hospital from August 2019 to March 2020.
methodsDuring alternating 12-hour shifts, consecutive trauma patients were approached in the ED after stabilisation. A case report form was used to collect social-demographics and patient clinical profile. Total charges billed for ED and in-hospital care and OOP payments were obtained from the hospital billing system. Patients were interviewed by phone to determine the measures they took to pay their bills. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with catastrophic health expenditure (CHE), using the WHO definition of OOP expenditures ≥40% of monthly income.
resultsWe enrolled 355 trauma patients of whom 51 (14.4%) were insured. The median age was 32 years (IQR 25-40), 238 (83.2%) were male, 162 (56.6%) were married and 87.8% had ≥2 household dependents. The majority 224 (78.3%) had informal employment with a median monthly income of US$86. Overall, 286 (80.6%) had OOP expenses for their care. 95.1% of all patients had an Injury Severity Score <16 among whom OOP payments were US$176.98 (IQR 62.33-311.97). Chest injury and spinal injury incurred the highest OOP payments of US$282.63 (84.71-369.33) and 277.71 (191.02-874.47), respectively. Overall, 85.3% had a CHE. 203 patients (70.9%) were interviewed after discharge. In this group, 13.8% borrowed money from family, and 12.3% sold personal items of value to pay for their hospital bills.
conclusionOOP costs place a significant economic burden on individuals and families. Measures to reduce injury and financial risk are needed in Tanzania.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.