Comparison of the Thresholds of Households' Exposure to Catastrophic Health Expenditure in Iran and Brazil, and Selection of the Most Appropriate Threshold.

Background: Different definitions are nowadays adopted to estimate the threshold of exposure of households to catastrophic health expenditures and different thresholds are used in various studies. This study was conducted to compare these thresholds and select the most appropriate threshold for defining catastrophic health expenditure in Iran and Brazil.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data were collected from 592 households from District 17 of Tehran, Iran, and 869 households from Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2013.