SELECTED ASPECTS OF FINANCIAL AMOUNTS SPENT BY THE CITIZENS OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC ON THE THERAPY OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES.

Cardiovascular diseases rank among chronic diseases that may have negative impact not only on the individual's economic activities but they may have radical impact also on the individual's common life and on its quality. The expenses on the therapy of heart and vessel diseases in the Czech Republic are paid predominantly from public health insurance and partially also in form of financial contribution of the citizens, consisting particularly in payment for medicines. This article, based on the implemented project supported from the program project of the Czech Ministry of Health with reg. No.15- 31000A, called "Intervention procedures in preventive cardiology", was aimed at ascertaining, describing and evaluating the relations of the financial amount spent by the citizens of the Czech Republic on the therapy of heart and vessel diseases, with selected socioeconomic characteristics (age, gender, region, job), and the impact of the individual's financial contribution from the perspective of the individual's income. The structure of the selection set of citizens corresponds to the structure of all Czech citizens from the perspective of regions, genders and ages. The total selection set consists of 1992 citizens (937 males and 1055 females). The study was implemented under use of the quantitative research strategy in 2016. Non-standardized questionnaires and the standardized SF-36 questionnaire were used for the data collection. The statistical data processing was performed by the SASD program, version 1.4.12. The investigation was aimed at ascertaining what financial amounts were spent by the Czech citizens in connection with the therapy of heart and vessel diseases per month. 82.1% respondents stated that their monthly expenses spent in connection with the therapy of heart and vessel diseases were under 500 CZK; 13.2% respondents report a range of 501 CZK to 1000 CZK; only 4.7 % respondents report to spent more than1000 CZK. The study also revealed that statistically significantly higher expenses for the therapy of cardiovascular diseases are spent by older age groups, from 60 years on. In connection with profession the study showed statistically significantly higher expenses spent by old age and disability pensioners. Statistically significantly higher expenses for the therapy of cardiovascular diseases were found in respondents in the South Bohemian, Liberec and Pardubice Regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]