ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE：To e xplore the health economic burden of hypertension patients at county-level areas and its influential factors in China. METHODS ：A questionnaire survey was conducted on hypertension patients in 7 county-level public hospitals from 6 provinces as Hebei ，Shandong，Shanxi provinces by using a convenient sampling method. Catastrophic health expenditure was defined by the standard of “medical and health expenditure exceeding 10％ of household income ”. The incidence ， average gap and relative gap of catastrophic health expenditure were analyzed. A multi-factor Logistic regression model analysis was used to analyze the influential factors that lead to catastrophi c health expenditure. RESULTS ：A total of 1 378 questionnaires were sent out ，and 925 valid questionnaires were collected with effective rate of 67.13％ . The incidence of catastrophic health expenditure，average gap and relative gap among hypertension patients were 23.03％，19.37％ and 84.12％，respectively. At different income levels ，the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure，average gap and relative gap were 72.67％ ， 96.79％ and 133.18％ in the poorest household group ，and were 1.94％ ，0.47％ and 24.23％ in the richest household group. Among different types of medical insurance ，the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure in patients covered by “New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme （NRCMS）”the highest （31.30％）. The household income ，complications and the type of health insurance had significant impacts on the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure in hypertension patients （P＜0.05）. CONCLUSIONS：The incidence of catastrophic health expenditure in hypertension patients with different income levels is different. As the income level raised ，the incidence of catastrophic health expenditures continued to decrease. But the protection of household health expenditure by NRCMS is weak. It is suggested that a certain policy preference should be given to families with low income and patients with chronic diseases ，so as to ensure the rights and interests of patients with hypertension .