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Short Communication
12 July 2019

Ability to pay for medication: a clustering analysis of 1404 patients with the Patient Financial Eligibility Tool

Authors: Etienne Audureau [email protected], Marie Hélène Besson, Anas Nofal, Roshel Jayasundera, Joseph Saba, and Joël LadnerAuthor Info & Affiliations
Volume 8, Number 12
https://doi.org/10.2217/cer-2019-0063
PDFFormats

Abstract

Aim: The study was conducted to understand how key determinants of the Patient Financial Eligibility Tool (PFET), a previously validated tool for assessing patients’ ability to contribute to their medication costs, vary across countries. Materials & methods: A clustering analysis was conducted on economic data from 1404 patients from Thailand (n = 947), the UAE (n = 347) and Mexico (n = 110). Results: The analysis identified seven patient clusters, including globally wealthy or poor patients (14%/48%) and those with only selectively increased PFET economic indicators (38%), and revealed country-specific differences in the correlation between PFET metrics and patients’ overall economic status. Conclusion: The PFET is a versatile tool that can be adapted to each country’s economic context to assess patients’ ability to contribute to their medication costs.

Supplementary Material

File (supp_video_1_-_clusters_3d_biplot.pptx)

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