86
HEALTH
Less than one quarter of all households had any costs for in-patient care, but if costs were made it was usually a large amount with a median of 6.6 thousand Afs. and an average expenditure of 34 thousand Afs. On average households
in Afghanistan – including those without costs – mentioned an expenditure of 7.5 thousand Afs. for in-patient care. Expenditure on out-patient care was considerably lower with a median of 300 Afs. and a mean of 1.5 thousand Afs.
by all households, but was made twice as often – by 51 percent of all households – as in-patient care costs. Other health-related expenditure was again smaller but more frequent by 63 percent of households. Overall, households in
Afghanistan spent on average more than nine thousand Afs. on health care, with a median expenditure of 1.1 thousand
Afs. For those households that did make any costs the corresponding igures are, respectively, 11.2 and 1.6 thousand Afs. It is notable that urban households have a signiicantly higher level of expenditure than rural households, which is
likely related to lower urban poverty levels and better access to health services.
Table 9.3: Mean and median household health-related expenditure for A. Households with speciied expenditure and B. all households, by expenditure type, residence in Afghanis
A. Households with speciied expenditure B. All households
Expenditure type, Households with expenditure
All households Mean
Median Mean
Median
a. In-patient care expenditure
Urban 46,445
8,000 11,376
Rural 30,756
6,000 6,586
Kuchi 21,082
6,000 3,684
Total 34,281
6,600 7,504
b. Out-patient care expenditure
Urban 3,735
1,100 2,119
450 Rural
2,535 1,200
1,301 200
Kuchi 1,903
1,200 901
Total 2,796
1,200 1,463
300
c. Other health-related expenditure
Urban 661
250 429
100 Rural
651 300
371 100
Kuchi 518
200 315
90 Total
646 300
381 100
d. Total health-related expenditure
Urban 16,021
1,600 13,924
1,200 Rural
10,035 1,600
8,258 1,050
Kuchi 6,103
1,380 4,900
1,000 Total
11,232 1,600
9,348 1,100
87
HEALTH
Table 9.4: In-patients A and out-patients B in the year before the survey, by sex, and by age A. In-patients
a. In thousands b. In percentages
Age Male
Female Total
Age Male
Female Total
0-9 123
99 221
0-9 32.5
17.7 23.7
10-19 56
63 120
10-19 14.9
11.4 12.8
20-29 35
126 161
20-29 9.2
22.7 17.2
30-39 33
89 122
30-39 8.8
16.0 13.1
40-49 29
67 96
40-49 7.7
12.0 10.3
50-59 31
64 95
50-59 8.1
11.5 10.1
60-69 37
33 70
60-69 9.8
5.9 7.5
70-79 23
13 37
70-79 6.2
2.4 3.9
80-89 9
3 12
80-89 2.4
0.5 1.2
90+ 1
1 90+
0.3 0.0
0.1 Total
378 558
935 Total
100.0 100.0
100.0
B. Out-patients a. In thousands b. In percentages
Age Male
Female Total
Age Male
Female Total
0-9 557
477 1,033
0-9 47.8
30.3 37.8
10-19 149
193 342
10-19 12.8
12.3 12.5
20-29 103
270 372
20-29 8.8
17.1 13.6
30-39 72
214 286
30-39 6.2
13.6 10.5
40-49 70
166 236
40-49 6.0
10.6 8.6
50-59 77
158 235
50-59 6.6
10.1 8.6
60-69 80
67 147
60-69 6.8
4.3 5.4
70-79 35
22 57
70-79 3.0
1.4 2.1
80-89 17
5 22
80-89 1.4
0.3 0.8
90+ 5
1 6
90+ 0.4
0.0 0.2
Total 1,163
1,573 2,736
Total 100.0
100.0 100.0
9.2.3 Visits to health care facilities
NRVA 2011-12 inquired into occurrence of visits to health care facilities in the year preceding the interview. The results show that from more than 800 thousand households one or more members have been admitted to stay overnight in a
health facility. In total this referred to 935 thousand different in-patients, 60 percent of whom were women or girls.
As can be seen from Table 9.4, the concentration of female in-patients is in the reproductive ages and is closely related
to ante-natal-, delivery- and post-delivery care. Half 51 percent of all female patients who stayed overnight in a health facility is in the age bracket 15-49, whereas only a quarter 26 percent of the male in-patients belongs to this age group.
In absolute numbers the igures of in-patients decline with age, due to the typical pyramid shape of the population with relatively small numbers of elderly and large numbers of children. However, calculating the number per age group as a
percentage of the total population, the incidence of hospitalisation clearly concentrates in the old age groups Figure 9.1,
panel A. This is the expected pattern, as health problems tend to increase with age, with the exception of the immediate years after birth. However, the pattern for women is strongly inluenced by visits for maternity reasons as can be seen in
the sharp increase of the female prevalence at age group 20-29.
