摘要：Introduction: Considering the high proportion of hospital expenditures in out-of-pocketpayments and the importance of controlling and managing hospital expenditures to preventcatastrophic costs, the main purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting thehospital expenditures of Iranian urban household with emphasis on maternal education.Methods: The present study is a descriptive-analytical and applied research conducted atnational level using econometrics Heckman two-step model. The sample size included 15740urban households of Iranian provinces in 2017 that was selected according to Cochranformula and three-stage sampling by the Statistical Centre of Iran. The data were also extractedfrom different sections of the standard questionnaire “Urban Household Cost-Income” of theStatistical Centre of Iran and processed in Stata 10 software.Results: Higher education and employment of mothers have led to a decrease in theprobability of household facing hospital expenditures, by 0.002% and 0.9%, respectively.Mother’s employment, having supplementary health insurance, and bachelor’s or highereducation of mother resulted in a decrease in per capita hospital expenditures of householdsby 2058123, 1361437 and 3647518 Rials, respectively. An increase in household size, havingchildren under the age of seven and elderly persons over sixty years old, and mothers withelementary education led to an increase in household hospital expenditures by 1347241,4406778, 1602637 and 1674286 Rials, respectively.Conclusion: Regarding the greater impact of aging of mothers, compared to fathers, andhaving children and elderly persons in the household and increased hospital expenditures,protection and support of such households is necessary to achieve better health status andreduce household hospital expenditures, which can be achieved through improving anddiscounting insurance coverage and preventive health care. Also, investing in education toprovide an appropriate condition for education of most people in the community, as well asenhancing parental health literacy through health education, is recommended.
