_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding author: Email: ikeokwu.anderson@gmail.com; South Asian Journal of Social Studies and Economics 5(3): 1-13, 2019; Article no.SAJSSE.52993 ISSN: 2581-821X Economic Burden of Illness among the Self- Employed in the Commercial City of Port-Harcourt Ikeokwu E. Anderson 1* and Foluke O. Adeniji 1 1 Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Authors’ contributions This work was carried out in collaboration between both authors. The authors designed, analysed and interpreted and prepared the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript. Article Information DOI: 10.9734/SAJSSE/2019/v5i330145 Editor(s): (1) Dr. John M. Polimeni, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Albany, New York. Reviewers: (1) Danny Asogun, Ambrose Alli University, Nigeria. (2) Zafir Ullah Khan, University of Science & technology, Pakistan. (3) Yatin Talwar, Post Graduate Institute Medical Education Research, India. Complete Peer review History: http://www.sdiarticle4.com/review-history/52993 Received 22 September 2019 Accepted 26 November 2019 Published 02 December 2019 ABSTRACT Introduction: The informal sector in Port-Harcourt harbours the small-scale and self-employed activities which are mainly for generating employment and incomes. Self-employed activities in Port-Harcourt is huge and well spread, which contributes over 50% of the state Gross Domestic Product. Even though the informal sector is an opportunity for generating reasonable incomes for many people, most informal workers are without secure income, employments benefits and social protection. For this they often face health related shocks, such as unpredictable illnesses that weaken their health status. This results into massive loss of income but also meagre resources that has been in a hard way saved over a long period of time. This study investigated the economic burden of illness among the self-employed in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, in addition to the mechanisms that self-employed individuals used to pay for health services and cope with payments. Methodology: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive in design which comprises of 204 self- employed individuals who were selected from seven different trade association in Port-Harcourt using asemi-structured interviewer-administered pre-tested questionnaire. A Socio-economic Status (SES) index was used to divide the households into quintiles, and ANOVA test was used to test for significant differences in the mean cost of illness by SES quintiles. Data collected were analysed using the statistical package for social science (SPSS), version 23 software. Original Research Article