Cost of Tuberculosis Care in Programmatic Settings from Karnataka, India: Is It Catastrophic for the Patients?

Table 5

Comparison of total cost incurred by the TB patients among various sociodemographic groups in the three selected urban TB units of Karnataka, India (2017-2018).

Variables	Median (IQR)		Mean rank	value/ value	value
Median age in years^ᴥ
≤36	10320 (9287.5)	24	24.94		0.29
>36	8550 (9410.0)	21	20.79
Gender^ᴥ
Males	10680 (7733.8)	28	24.95		0.20
Females	7800 (6495.0)	17	19.79
Type of TB^ᴥ
Pulmonary	8075 (8810.0)	28	20.33		0.078
Extrapulmonary	10000 (17925)	17	27.44
Health seeking behavior
Public health care facility	6800 (5882.5)	20	16.28		0.002
Private health care facility	12100 (10975)	25	28.38
Socioeconomic status^¥
Class I	900 (17742.5)	12	23.29		0.33
Class II	7800 (7935.0)	21	20.31
Class III	11325 (6218.75)	12	27.42

Indicates significant difference at . ^ᴥMann-Whitney test. ^¥Kruskal-Wallis test. Note: health-seeking behavior was also significantly associated with the higher median out-of-pocket expenditure (OPE), i.e., ≥8000 INR on applying a chi-square test ( value being 24.80 and ).