The Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Households' Utilization of Rehabilitation Services: National Evidence from Iran Health System

Ali Kazemi-Karyani; Shahin Soltani; Satar Rezaei; Kamran Irandoust; Jafar Yahyavi Dizaj

doi:10.15280/jlm.2023.13.2.101

The Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Households' Utilization of Rehabilitation Services: National Evidence from Iran Health System

J Lifestyle Med. 2023 Aug 31;13(2):101-109. doi: 10.15280/jlm.2023.13.2.101.

Authors

Ali Kazemi-Karyani¹, Shahin Soltani¹, Satar Rezaei¹, Kamran Irandoust², Jafar Yahyavi Dizaj^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Research Center for Environmental Determinants of Health, Health Institute, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
² Department of Health Economics, School of Management and Medical Information, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
³ Department of Health Economics and Management, School of Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the pattern of utilization of healthcare services. This study aimed to investigate the utilization of rehabilitation services before and after the COVID-19 pandemic in the health system of Iran.

Methods: This descriptive-analytical study used data from the Household Income and Expenditure Surveys of the Iran Statistics Center in 2018-2019 (before COVID-19) and 2020 (after COVID-19). The patterns of utilization and expenditures of rehabilitation services before and after this pandemic were investigated in different household sub-groups. The multilevel logistic regression model was used to investigate the effect of COVID-19 on the utilization of health services by households.

Results: Although 258 (0.66%) households used rehabilitation services before the COVID-19 pandemic, only 175 (0.47%) households utilized them after the pandemic. Additionally, the average total rehabilitation costs per utilized household were 3,438,185 Iranian Rials (IRR) in 2018-2019 and 2,996,511 IRR in 2020-2021. Sex, age, education, size of household, place of residence, health insurance coverage, and income significantly affected the utilization of rehabilitation services by households during the study period (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the average use of rehabilitation services decreased by 22% (odds ratio = 0.78, p < 0.01) after the pandemic.

Conclusion: In Iranian households, the utilization and average expenditure of rehabilitation services significantly decreased after the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings strongly recommend health system policymakers to develop comprehensive plans to address future shocks arising from pandemics and other emergencies.

Keywords: COVID-19; Delivery of health care; Iran; Rehabilitation.