scholarly journals Tobacco Farming and Illness Induced Poverty in Pakistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Muhammad Shahzad ◽  
Anwar Shah ◽  
Frank Joseph Chaloupka

Tobacco has been projected for its economic prosperity in Pakistan and many other developing countries while the opportunity cost of domestic labor, health issues and associated health cost related with tobacco farming are often overlooked. Various health conditions associated with tobacco farming result in catastrophic health expenditures which not only increase the chances of poverty head counts but also deepens it further. Taking into account the opportunity cost of domestic labor and health cost associated with tobacco induced illnesses obscure the tobacco prosperity rhetoric. This study examined effect of incremental health cost associated with tobacco farming on poverty head counts and severity. Using survey data from the tobacco producing districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, this study found that tobacco farmers experienced higher proportion of sever health hazards and illnesses like CVD and respiratory issues.  The severe nature of ailments caused them higher share of out of pocket expenditures as compared to non-tobacco farmers and general population. Increase in health expenditures not only increased their poverty head counts by four and half percent but also severity of poverty worsened further by 8 percentage points using the Cost of Basic Needs (CBN) approach for measuring poverty. This study concludes that it is not only tobacco consumption associated with various health conditions but also tobacco farming. It is recommended that health cost associated with tobacco farming be considered both in setting up of minimum indicative prices for tobacco and consideration of health cost can be used as a tool against prosperity rhetoric which is used to block tobacco control policy.

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Roshanira Che Mohd Noor ◽  
Nur Atiqah Rochin Demong

Providing a safe and healthy workplace is one of the most effective strategies in for holding down the cost of doing construction business. It was a part of the overall management system to facilitate themanagement of the occupational health and safety risk that are associated with the business of the organization. Factors affected the awareness level inclusive of safety and health conditions, dangerous working area, long wait care and services and lack of emergency communication werethe contributed factors to the awareness level for the operational level. Total of 122 incidents happened at Telekom Malaysia Berhad as compared to year 2015 only 86 cases. Thus, the main objective of this study was to determine the relationship between safety and health factors and the awareness level among operational workers.The determination of this research was to increase the awareness level among the operational level workerswho committing to safety and health environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Asefzadeh ◽  
Bahman Ahadi Nezhad ◽  
Saeed Norouzi

Background: Out-of-pocket payment encompasses the costs that patients pay for healthcare services, which is an inefficient approach to healthcare financing as it may lead to poverty. Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the risk of catastrophic health expenditures due to non-medical costs in the outpatients in Qazvin, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted on 341 outpatients referring to the internists of Velayat Hospital and Bu-Ali Sina Hospital in Qazvin. The required data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire and the prescriptions of the patients. Out-of-pocket payments were defined as the direct medical and non-medical costs within one month. Results: The mean out-of-pocket payments of the patients in one month was 49.97 dollars, 75.8% of which covered direct medical cost (disease diagnosis and treatment), and 24.2% covered direct non-medical costs to receive health services. The highest out-of-pocket payments were for diagnostic/laboratory tests (50.3%), medications (21.5%), and transportation (18.2%). In addition, the exposure rate to catastrophic expenditures was estimated at 31%, and the patients with lower income had less exposure compared to those without incomes. Conclusions: According to the results, direct non-medical costs were associated with the increased out-of-pocket payments of the patients, which in turn led to the higher rates of catastrophic expenditures.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. s31-s36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ce Shang ◽  
Hye Myung Lee ◽  
Frank J Chaloupka ◽  
Geoffrey T Fong ◽  
Mary Thompson ◽  
...  

BackgroundRecent studies show that greater price variability and more opportunities for tax avoidance are associated with tax structures that depart from a specific uniform one. These findings indicate that tax structures other than a specific uniform one may lead to more cigarette consumption.ObjectiveThis paper aims to examine how cigarette tax structure is associated with cigarette consumption.MethodsWe used survey data taken from the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project in 17 countries to conduct the analysis. Self-reported cigarette consumption was aggregated to average measures for each surveyed country and wave. The effect of tax structures on cigarette consumption was estimated using generalised estimating equations after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, average taxes and year fixed effects.FindingsOur study provides important empirical evidence of a relationship between tax structure and cigarette consumption. We find that a change from a specific to an ad valorem structure is associated with a 6%–11% higher cigarette consumption. In addition, a change from uniform to tiered structure is associated with a 34%–65% higher cigarette consumption. The results are consistent with existing evidence and suggest that a uniform and specific tax structure is the most effective tax structure for reducing tobacco consumption.


Economies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Micheal Kofi Boachie ◽  
K. Ramu ◽  
Tatjana Põlajeva

The effect of government spending on population’s health has received attention over the past decades. This study re-examines the link between government health expenditures and health outcomes to establish whether government intervention in the health sector improves outcomes. The study uses annual data for the period 1980–2014 on Ghana. The ordinary least squares (OLS) and the two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimators are employed for analyses; the regression estimates are then used to conduct cost-effectiveness analysis. The results show that, aside from income, public health expenditure contributed to the improvements in health outcomes in Ghana for the period. We find that, overall, increasing public health expenditure by 10% averts 0.102–4.4 infant and under-five deaths in every 1000 live births while increasing life expectancy at birth by 0.77–47 days in a year. For each health outcome indicator, the effect of income dominates that of public spending. The cost per childhood mortality averted ranged from US$0.20 to US$16, whereas the cost per extra life year gained ranged from US$7 to US$593.33 (2005 US$) during the period. Although the health effect of income outweighs that of public health spending, high (and rising) income inequality makes government intervention necessary. In this respect, development policy should consider raising health sector investment inter alia to improve health conditions.


2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (03) ◽  
Author(s):  
Romeo Fersi Mongdong ◽  
Jenny Morasa ◽  
Heince Wokas

The business world today is characterized by increasing competition among existing companies. Competition occurs in all sectors of the economy both industry, trade, and services. One of the decisions that must be taken in planning at every alternative is to buy or produce itself a component of raw materials. Differential cost are related to the opportunity cost, which is the differential cost incurred costs as a result of certain decisions while the opportunity cost is the cost incurred when choosing a decision. The purpose of this study to analyze the differential costs and opportunity costs in the decision to buy or produce their own on Industri Rumah Panggung Woloan. The analytical method used is descreptive quantitative. Result of the differential cost analysis showed that the right decisions can be taken by the management company the manufactures its own because getting a hihgter differential gain, compared to buying from outside. While the opportunity cost of the buying raw materials from outside is more profitable, thus producing itself becomes more expensive. Should the leadership Industri Rumah Panggung Woloan produce their own wood from the outside becauseit would be more adventageous, compared to taking wood there are kept alone.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guvenc Kockaya ◽  
Gülpembe Oguzhan ◽  
Zafer Çalşkan

Without any financial protection out of pocket health expenses are essential both because their increase causes difficulties in accessing higher quality health services for households and more importantly because it complicates access to most basic health services. As a result of the Health Transformation Program in practice in the Turkish healthcare system since 2003, significant changes have been done in all layers of the health system. Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) publishes the ratio of households that bear catastrophic health expenditures since 2002. According to TurkStat data, the ratio of households with catastrophic expenditure has fallen from 0.81% in 2002 to 0.17% in 2011 with the health transformation project. However, it has started to rise since 2012 and has reached 0.31% in 2014. This study aims to evaluate the expenditure items that may have caused the rise of the ratio of households with catastrophic health expenditures since 2012, which had previously dropped with the Health Transformation Program that has caused fundamental changes in health policies. Methodology and definitions presented in the article named “Distribution of health payments and catastrophic expenditures: Methodology” by Ke Xu published by the World Health Organization in 2005 have been used. Percentages of health expenditure items among the total expenditure of households with positive health expenditure and households with catastrophic health expenditure between 2007 and 2014 have been evaluated using descriptive analysis. Findings have been interpreted in light of the health policies in practice between 2007 and 2014. An overview of the impact of the health policies reveals that medicine expenditures have decreased both for household and public health expenditures. Despite the impact of policies on the pharmaceutical industry was criticized by the industry, the positive impact can be seen by the decrease in the spending on medicine for households spending on health. Hospital service with positive health expenditure is seen to decrease health expenditure. The reasons for the increase in households with catastrophic health expenditure need further research. As a result, the study strives to discuss the possible policy reasons for the observed effects.


2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (10) ◽  
pp. 1664-1673 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. M. Brinda ◽  
A. P. Rajkumar ◽  
U. Enemark ◽  
M. Prince ◽  
K. S. Jacob

ABSTRACTBackground: Increasing out-of-pocket health expenditure among older people worsens the inequitable access to essential health services in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). We investigated various socioeconomic and health factors associated with out-of-pocket and catastrophic health expenditures among rural older people in India.Methods: We recruited 1,000 participants aged above 65 years from Kaniyambadi block, Vellore, India. We assessed their out-of-pocket health expenditure, health service utilization, socioeconomic profiles, disability, cognition, and health status by standard instruments. We employed appropriate multivariate statistics evaluating these determinants.Results: Male gender, poor sanitation, diabetes, tuberculosis, malaria, respiratory ailments, gastrointestinal diseases, dementia, depression, and disability were associated with higher out-of-pocket expenditures. Illiteracy, tuberculosis, diabetes, and dementia increased the risk for catastrophic health expenditures, while pension schemes protected against it. Income inequalities were associated with inequities on education, disease prevalence, and access to safe water, sanitation, and nutrition.Conclusions: Interactions between determinants of out-of-pocket health expenditure, economic inequality, and inequities on essential health care delivery to older people are complex. We highlight the need for equitable health services and policies, focusing on both medical and social determinants.


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