Dale Johannsen C. Ng¹, Ma. Cecilia D. Alinea¹
1- Philippine General Hospital, Philippines
Abstract Body
Introduction: Out-of-pocket expenditure is a marker of health care system effectiveness to protect the population from catastrophic health expenditure. Families caring for children with chronic conditions are vulnerable to financial burden.
Objectives: To correlate the amount of direct out-of-pocket expenses incurred during admission with demographic, clinical and socio-economic factors in a tertiary government hospital in the Philippines
Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study that recruited 54 pediatric in-patients at the General Pediatric wards during August 2025. A questionnaire & record form was used to record out-of-pocket expenses incurred. Age, Sex, Educational Attainment, Occupation, Socioeconomic Status, Residence and Hospital Length of Stay was correlated with Total Out-of- Pocket Expenditure during admission. Results &
Discussion: Out-of-pocket expenditure causes financial burden even when admitted in government-funded hospitals. A breakdown of these out-of-pocket expenditures are varied, with the majority being used for food (59,15%), medication (14.28%) and transportation (11.64%). Thus, inadequate food provisions, consistent drug shortages in hospitals, and inequitable access to health services may contribute to an increase in out-of-pocket expenditures. Amongst all the variables, hospital length of stay is statistically significant, wherein an additional 1 day increase in hospital stay will increase out-of-pocket expenditure by PhP 207 .88, other variables kept constant. (p