Health Care Utilization and Out-of-Pocket Payments among Elderly with Cognitive Frailty in Malaysia

Ahmed Abdelmajed Alkhodary, Syed Mohamed Aljunid, Aniza Ismail, Amrizal Muhammad Nur and Suzana Shahar
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Ahmed Abdelmajed Alkhodary: International Centre for Casemix and Clinical Coding, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia
Syed Mohamed Aljunid: International Centre for Casemix and Clinical Coding, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia
Aniza Ismail: Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Yaakob Latiff, Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia
Amrizal Muhammad Nur: International Centre for Casemix and Clinical Coding, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia
Suzana Shahar: Program of Dietetics, Faculty of Health Science, National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 6, 1-18

Abstract: Background: Cognitive frailty (CF) as a potential risk factor for dementia, functional disability, poor quality of life, and mortality. The aim of this study was to explore the health care-related utilization and out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditures, sociodemographic characteristics, and comorbidities among elderly Malaysians with CF. Methods: A cross-sectional study targeting elderly Malaysian aged ≥65 years was conducted. The study included all participants of the fourth phase of the Malaysian representative Long-Term-Research-Grant-Scheme Towards-Useful-Aging (LRGS-TUA) community-based study. A structured and validated interview questionnaire was used. Results: In total, 1006 elderly were interviewed, with a 66.18% response rate. Only 730 respondents met the inclusion criteria. Of the eligible respondents, the CF prevalence was 4.5%. Around 60.6% of the participants with CF had utilized outpatient care at government clinics within the past 6 months. The estimated mean total OOP payments for CF during the past 6 months was 84 Malaysian Ringgit (RM) (SD 96.0). Conclusions: CF among elderly Malaysians is within the internationally recognized range of prevalence. The OOP payments for seeking health care among CF elderly are not different from that of other elderly categories. There is a high possibility of underutilization of the health care services of CF cases while they are still needy.

Keywords: cognitive frailty; elderly; Malaysia; health care utilization; comorbidities; out-of-pocket payment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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