Objective  To examine the impact of stroke on household economic condition among Bai ethnic minority in Yunnan province and to provide evidences for reducing stroke-related family economic burden in the population.

  Methods  Totally 2 700 rural Bai ethnic residents aged 35 years and over were recruited using stratified multistage random sampling in 9 villages of a county in Yunnan province and interviewed face-to-face with a self-designed questionnaire during April – May 2018. The participants′ information on catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) and disease-induced poverty (DIP) were collected to evaluated the impact of stroke on family economic condition.

  Results  Among 2 501 residents with valid response, 155 stroke patients were identified and the stroke prevalence rate was 6.2%. The stroke prevalence rate was significantly higher among the male than among the female residents (7.8% vs. 4.9%) and higher among the residents with poor familial economic status than among those without familial economic difficulty (10.2% vs. 5.9%) (both P < 0.05). Among the 155 stroke patients, 25.16% and 18.71% reported family CHE and DIP before the compensation of medical expenses from the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS); while, the two rates decreased to 21.94% and 9.67%, respectively, after the NRCMS′s compensation of the medical expenses. The results of unconditional multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that compared to the residents without family economic difficulty, the residents with poor family economic condition were more likely to have CHE (odds ratio OR = 1.676, 95% confidence interval 95% CI: 1.079 – 2.602) and DIP (OR = 3.278, 95% CI: 2.311 – 4.648); the residents with stroke were at a significantly higher risk of CHE (OR = 4.511, 95% CI: 3.005 – 6.770) and DIP (OR = 1.851, 95% CI: 1.131 – 3.029) than the non-stroke residents; while, the residents with the average annual family income of > 5 700 Yuan (RMB) per capita were less likely to have CHE (OR = 0.430, 95% CI: 0.314 – 0.588) and DIP (OR = 0.035, 95% CI: 0.020 – 0.062) in comparison with those with the income of ≤ 5 700 Yuan.

  Conclusion  Stroke is of significant impact on household economic condition among rural Bai ethnic minority in Yunnan province. The result suggests that medical and financial support should be promoted for stroke patients with low income or poor family economic condition in the population.