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Introduction: This study looks at the patient's perspective to determine the Catastrophic Health Expenditure (CHE) level and the possible factors which can be associated with CHE in cancer patients. Methods: This cross sectional study was done in National Cancer Institute, Malaysia with 206 patients sampled using the multilevel sampling method and data collected from interview with patients using a validated questionnaire. The CHE definition used in this study is when the monthly health expenditure exceeds more than 10% of the monthly household income. Results: This study showed a CHE level of 26.2%. CHE was higher in Indian ethnicity (P = 0.017), single marital status (P = 0.019), poverty income (P < 0.001), small household size (P = 0.006) and without Guarantee Letter (GL) (P = 0.002) groups. The significant predicting factors were poverty income aOR 5.60 (95% CI: 2.34 - 13.39), home distance near to hospital aOR 4.12 (95% CI: 1.74 - 9.76), small household size aOR 4.59 (95% CI: 1.07 - 19.72) and lack of Guarantee Letter aOR 3.21 (95% CI: 1.24 - 8.30). Conclusion: The information from this paper can be used by policy makers to formulate better strategies in terms of health financing so that high risk for CHE cancer patients groups can be protected under a better health financing system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on living arrangements predict poor older Malaysians by sex disaggregation. The respondents in this paper are 60 years old and above in 2016, to a total n=2467 (50.8% men, and 49.2% female) from 91 districts in Malaysia. The majority poor male (64.92%), and female (60.3%) respondents are living with children. Three types of significant (p<0.05) living arrangements predict poor male respondents are living with-spouse-only (odd=8.357) with children (odd=5.141), and with relative (odd=2.514). Three types of significant (p<0.05) living arrangements predict poor female respondents are living with-spouse-only (odd=53.333) with children (odd=8.69), and with relative (odd=3.257). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]