Out-of-pocket expenditure of patients admitted with dengue in a public hospital in Bangladesh.

Background: Bangladesh's health system is largely financed through out-of-pocket (OOP) payments. We aimed to quantify the direct OOP expenditure incurred by hospitalised patients with dengue during the 2023 epidemic.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 428 hospitalised adult patients with dengue at a major public hospital during the 2023 epidemic, collecting detailed OOP expenditure data.