Impact of socio-economic factors on healthcare expenditures of vulnerable elderly people in morocco

• Original study addressing multiple key hypotheses on elderly healthcare spending. • Gender, regional and urban/rural disparities have a significant impact on health expenditure. • Kruskal-Wallis and Mann–Whitney U tests ensure rigorous statistical analysis. • Findings provide a strong basis for targeted and adapted health policies. In 1960, Morocco had 835,000 individuals aged 60 and over. By 2023, this number had risen to 4.9 million, and it is projected to reach 10.1 million by 2050. To understand the implications of this demographic shift, data from the 2013/2014 HCP-ENCDM survey were used to analyze the impact of socio-economic factors on the annual healthcare expenditures of vulnerable elderly households and their standard of living. Specifically, this study examined differences in healthcare expenditures by region, area of residence (urban vs. rural), gender, household size, profession, and education level of the household head. Due to significant departures from normality and heterogeneity of variances across groups, nonparametric tests including the Mann–Whitney U test and the Kruskal–Wallis test with subsequent pairwise comparisons were employed. The findings reveal statistically significant differences in healthcare expenditures across all examined socio-economic dimensions. These results highlight the critical role of local economic conditions, access to healthcare, and social determinants in shaping expenditure patterns among vulnerable elderly households. Ultimately, the study emphasizes the importance of developing tailored public health policies to address these disparities and promote equitable access to healthcare services.