Economic burden and its associated factors of hospitalized patients infected with A (H7N9) virus: a retrospective study in Eastern China, 2013–2014

Abstract

BackgroundH7N9 continues to cause human infections and remains a pandemic concern. Understanding the economic impacts of this novel disease is important for making decisions on health resource allocation, including infectious disease prevention and control investment. However, there are limited data on such impacts.MethodsHospitalized laboratory-confirmed H7N9 patients or their families in Jiangsu Province of China were interviewed. Patients’ direct medical costs of hospitalization were derived from their hospital bills. A generalized linear model was employed to estimate the mean direct medical costs of patients with different characteristics.ResultsThe mean direct cost of hospitalization for H7N9 was estimated to be ¥ 71 060 (95 % CI, 48 180–104 820), i.e., US$ 10 996 (95 % CI, 7 455–16 220), and was ¥12 060 (US$ 1 861), ¥136 120 (US$ 21 001) and ¥218 610 (US$ 33 728) for those who had mild or severe symptoms or who died, respectively. The principal components of the total fees differed among patients with different disease severity, although medication fees were always the largest contributors. Disease severity, proportion of reimbursement and family member monthly average income were identified as the key factors that contributed to a patient’s direct medical cost of hospitalization.ConclusionsThe direct medical costs of hospitalized patients with H7N9 are significant, and far surpass the annual per capita income of Jiangsu Province, China. The influencing factors identified should be taken into account when developing related health insurance policies and making health resource allocation.Trial registrationNot applicable. This is a survey study with no health care intervention implemented on human participants.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40249-016-0170-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Socioeconomic burden of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome in endemic areas of Anhui Province, eastern China

“…The lost earnings of non‐working days of patients, caregivers and visitors were evaluated as $184.3, $184.3 and $95.3, respectively. These lost earnings were significantly higher than that of HFMD cases in Shanghai and lower than that of H7N9 patients in Jiangsu Province (Huo et al, ; Wang et al, ). Our study also revealed that 99.1% of patients had health insurance, but only 25.8% of costs of SFTSV infection were covered by reimbursement.…”

“…The median economic burden of SFTSV infection was $4,323.9 and lower than H7N9 patients in China (Huo et al, ). This might be due to longer hospitalization duration of H7N9 patients.…”

“…This might be due to longer hospitalization duration of H7N9 patients. The median outpatient and hospitalization costs of SFTSV infection were higher than that of dengue fever costs in Vietnam and lower than that of H7N9 patients in China (Huo et al, ; Lee et al, ). In addition to the substantial economic burden caused by SFTSV, the disease also resulted in significant societal impact on the patients, relatives, visitors, etc.…”

“…A structured questionnaire, which was formulated according to the previous socioeconomic burden studies, was used to collect the information from patients with SFTS (Huo et al, ; Wang et al, ). The questionnaire contained four parts, concerning (1) demographic features such as age, gender, occupation and medical insurance; (2) course of illness and clinical experience, including day of onset, day of visiting a doctor and medical institution level; (3) direct costs towards SFTS cases, such as outpatient costs, inpatient costs, out‐of‐pocket costs for drugs, transportation, food, lodging expenses of cases, caregivers and visitors; and (4) indirect costs in relation to SFTS cases, including lost work days of patients, caregivers and visitors.…”

Drug Brand Response and Its Impact on Compliance and Efficacy in Depression Patients

“…Besides, due to the brand recognition and expectation, when Chinese patients were switched from domestic drug (i.e., generics) to imported (joint venture) drugs, they usually reported a better drug efficacy (Ge and Zhu, 2007). However, as a vast, whether in unbalanced developed countries or in low-to-middle income countries, the medical resource is limited (Xu, 1990; Huo et al, 2016). We cannot offer all patients with imported (joint venture) drugs nor should we with good quality domestic drug.…”