How are patients managing with the costs of care for chronic kidney disease in Australia? A cross-sectional study

BMC Nephrology

Table 3 Summary of out-of-pocket costs by hardship status (out-of-pocket costs in the previous three months)

Out-of-pocket cost category	n	Minimum	Maximum	Mean (SE)	Mean difference^a	P ^b	Median (IQR)	P ^c
All
Hardship	99	15	5250	876 (100)	54	0.7	655 (800)	0.2
No hardship	136	32	9460	930 (96)			540 (720)
Medical care
Hardship	100	0	6150	280 (84)	76	0.5	40 (200)	0.7
No hardship	82	0	5250	204 (74)			53 (150)
Medications
Hardship	128	20	2000	304 (27)	57	0.08	200 (280)	0.6
No hardship	100	0	1200	247 (18)			200 (195)
Transport*
Hardship	112	0	1800	268 (26)	-60	0.1	200 (304)	0.2
No hardship	87	0	1200	328 (33)			240 (380)
Management and supportive care
Hardship	55	15	6430	552 (129)	94	0.6	265 (500)	0.8
No hardship	33	6	2710	458 (113)			230 (350)

AU$1=US$1=EU€0.73=BGP£0.62; January 2011.
SE: Standard error; IQR: Interquartile range.
* Medically related transport.
^a Mean difference: $\overset{―}{x}$ (hardship) - $\overset{―}{x}$ (no hardship).
^b Difference in means tested using the independent t-test.
^c Difference in distribution of medians tested using the Mann Whitney U test.

ISSN: 1471-2369