Table 2.
The impact of user fees on access to health services in low- and middle-income countries | ||||
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Population: Anyone using any type of health service in low- and middle-income countries. | ||||
Settings: Burkina Faso, Kenya, Lesotho, Papua New Guinea. | ||||
Intervention: Introducing or increasing user fees | ||||
Comparison: No fees | ||||
Outcomes | Relative change in utilisation1 | Number of studies | Quality of the evidence (GRADE)a | Comments |
Equity outcome - health utilisation by quartile | N/A | 1 | ⊕ ⊖ ⊖ ⊖ Very low3 | This study where quality improvements were introduced at the same time as user fees found an increase in utilisation for poor groups. The authors did not report the results in a way that the relative change in utilisation could be calculated. |
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