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Abstract

Background: The analysis of household financial contribution is considered as an indicator of financial equity in health. Households facing catastrophic payments lead to household poverty. This paper tends to measure and analyse trends of health poverty of Tehran housholds during1984-2012.
Materials & Methods: In this Trend study we used the statistical data on Household budgets (based on cohort data) for measuring health poverty in households with heads residing in Tehran city(Using FGt index). For analyzing data, we used STATA and Excel Software.
Results: Households with heads divided into 8 groups. The results showed that, in most age groups, both the rate and the severity of health poverty in 1999 had the highest values. Health poverty indices in the last of Forth Development Plan and ending in 2012 has been rised for all age groups. Comparing age groups, since 1994 (the end of the First Development Plan) until 2012, the result showed the highest health poverty rate being related the younger age groups (26-21 years and 31-27 years), respectively.
Conclusion: Overall, health poverty rate was high in all age groups and is associated with large fluctuations. The high fluctuation of the health poverty index during the Development Plans show stable and consistent policy has not been developed to reduce households facing catastrophic health expenditure.

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