Catastrophic care-seeking costs as an indicator for lung health

Costs incurred during care-seeking for chronic respiratory disease are a major problem with severe consequences for socio-economic status and health outcomes. Most of the published evidence to date relates to tuberculosis (TB) and there is a lack of information for the major non-communicable chronic respiratory diseases: asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). International policy is recognising the need to address this problem and measure progress towards eliminating catastrophic care-seeking costs (see the post-2015 TB strategy). Current tools for measuring, defining, and understanding the full consequences of catastrophic care-seeking costs are inadequate. We propose two areas of work which are urgently needed to prepare health systems and countries for the burden of chronic lung disease that will fall on poor populations in the coming 10-20 years: