From: Determinants of household catastrophic costs for drug sensitive tuberculosis patients in Kenya
Regarding the patient condition: |
1. That all patients remained in the same treatment category (DSTB) until the end of their current treatment |
2. That all patients adhered to the NTP recommended visit schedule for the duration of treatment (biweekly in intensive phase and once a month in the continuation phase) |
3. No further hospitalization episodes happened after the interview |
Regarding the estimation of costs: |
4. The costs incurred by patients interviewed in intensive phase were similar to those incurred previously by those interviewed in continuation phase given similar characteristics: demographic, disease and treatment categories, and socioeconomic characteristics. These characteristics were used to estimate costs and productivity losses for the alternative (missing) phase of treatment |
5. Likewise, costs incurred by patients interviewed in continuation phase were similar to those to be incurred in future by those interviewed in the Intensive phase given some similar characteristics as above |
6. That the costs and productivity losses remained constant for the entire treatment phase |
7. Where the patient was a child, the costs and productivity losses considered were those of the parent or primary guardian who was also assumed to be the treatment supporter |
8. To value the time lost by guardians and treatment supporters using human capital approach, it was assumed that all workers earned the 2017 Kenya government stipulated minimum wage; which is standardized by urban or rural residence |
9. Household expenditure remained constant despite income changes due to TB [32] |
10. Discounting was not taken into consideration since the time horizon is 1 year |