The direct (hospitalisations and medications) and indirect (school/work absenteeism) costs of asthma are significant, and seem to be increasing, making it an important public health issue.
The drivers identified for this economic burden included outpatient service costs (24%% of the total direct cost), hospitalisation costs (15%% of the total direct cost), and the cost of prescription drugs (14%% of the total direct cost) [ 13].
The direct cost of hospitalisation in Italy, in patients over 65, was almost 400 million euros [ 7].
As the RSBY scheme is expected to protect the patient from direct expenses during hospitalisation, we investigated this in further detail.
A study using DATASUS data estimated the direct cost of hospitalisation due to diabetes to be USD $362,945,412 in 2000 [ 58].
In addition to direct pharmacy costs, hospitalisation and other infrastructure costs are also increased, ultimately resulting in a greater strain on the healthcare system.
The total costs of schizophrenia in 2002 in Spain were estimated at €1,971 million with direct medical costs (hospitalisation, outpatients consultation and drug costs) contributing significantly (53%) to the total cost [ 7, 8].
The difference in other direct costs, including hospitalisation and drug costs related to the management of adverse events, was £239 in favour of caspofungin up to a weight of 77 kg [ 80].
Economic consequences for healthcare payers are similarly dramatic with the most recent cost estimates in the US alone at $116 billion for direct costs (pharmacy, hospitalisation, etc) and a further $58 billion due to lost productivity as a direct consequence of complications arising from the disease [ 2].
The results presented here show that universal infant vaccination with PCV7 has an incremental cost per life year gained of RM 35,196 (US$10,261) when only direct costs of hospitalisation and the impact of herd protection in the unvaccinated adult population are included.
