Access to health care in relation to socioeconomic status in the Amazonian area of Peru

Table 2 Cost incurred for public sector health care

	Cost incurred for public sector health care
	Yurimaguas			Moyobamba
	Free of charge	Paid out-of-pocket	Total	Free of charge	Paid out-of-pocket	Total
Poorest (Q1)	31 (86%)	5 (14%)	36	13 (87%)	2 (13%)	15
Q2	48 (92%)	4 (8%)	52	24 (92%)	2 (8%)	26
Q3	29 (74%)	10 (26%)	39	25 (81%)	6 (19%)	31
Least poor (Q4)	26 (67%)	13 (33%)	39	34 (81%)	8 (19%)	42
	134	32	166	128	30	158

Number of caregivers paying for the health care provided by the public sector health professionals stated in relation to wealth quartiles (as defined by principal component analysis (PCA)). Quartile 1 (Q1) represents the poorest quartile of the study sample (relatively poorest), quartile 2 (Q2) the second poorest, quartile 3 (Q3) the second least poor quartile and quarter 4 (Q4) the least poor quartile. Number of children whose caregivers paid for the health care provided by the public sector health professional or who were provided care free of charge, stated as numbers, with percentage of total number of children per quartile indicated in parentheses. Chi-square tests have been used to assess differences between two poorest (Q1 and Q2) and two least poor (Q3 and Q4) strata. Significant difference between strata was found for Yurimaguas (p < 0.05) but not for Moyobamba.

ISSN: 1475-9276