Expenditure and use on radiology imaging in urban and rural areas in a developing country

Changes in the population pyramid and in the disease burden of patients can be observed through the expenditure and frequency of use of medical imaging in health systems; however, this topic has undergone little study in the international literature. Our objective was to analyze the per capita and total expenditure and the frequency of use of radiological imaging according to gender, geographic area and type of medical imaging in the Colombian population. In this work, a national database was used to study temporal dynamics of annual expenditures and frequency of use on medical imaging of more than 19 million people (0-100 years old). Descriptive analytical techniques and statistical visualization were used for the development of the research. Per capita expenditure increased progressively with age and for almost all ages it was found to be higher in men than in women. In addition, rural areas had a higher per capita expenditure on medical imaging than urban areas. However, when analyzed by total expenditures, women and urban areas had the highest participation. Interventional radiology and magnetic resonance imaging procedures accounted for the largest share of total medical imaging spending. General radiology medical imaging has the highest frequency of use per capita and urban women are the profile with the highest use of these medical services. Our findings enable further characterization of the evolution of the financial burdens of medical imaging which we anticipate increasing with future aging of the population.