Effect of Information and Communication Technology Deployment on Health Expenditures of Iranian Households: A Provincial Approach.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has been rapidly developed in the last two decades and has directly or indirectly affected most areas of human life, including health, which is also referred to as e-health. On the other hand, in the past three decades, most countries in the world have experienced rapid growth in health expenditures, as health expenditures have become one of the most important items of household expenditure. Besides, in developing countries, including Iran, the main financial burden of using health goods and services is borne by households. Reducing the financial burden of health services on households has been one of the long-standing goals of policymakers. It seems that using the ICT capabilities in the form of e-health can be one of the effective solutions in this regard. The present study seeks to investigate this issue. For model estimation, the panel data method and the GLS model in the form of provincial data were applied. The results imply that besides other factors affecting the household health expenditures (such as income, education level, insurance coverage level, etc.), the development of ICT managed to have a significant effect on reducing the health expenditures. It seems developing ICT infrastructure, expanding its penetration rate and developing its applications in the form of e-health can be considered as a proper strategy in the field of health care.

Keywords:

ICT , Iran , Health Expenditure , Household , Province