Socioeconomic Costs of Stroke in Korea: Estimated from the Korea National Health Insurance Claims Database

Abstract

Stroke is a leading public health problem in Korea in terms of the economic burden. The indirect costs were identified as the largest component of the overall cost.

The economic burden of stroke in 2010 in Korea

“…In 2010, direct costs were 49% and indirect costs were 51% of the total costs, compared to 2005 where the direct costs were 31% and indirect costs were 69% of the total costs [8]. Our results showed a trend similar to that seen in many other studies.…”

“…However, because we hypothesized that patients who suffer from chronic diseases such as stroke would rarely travel to another region to receive treatment, we estimated the cost of stroke-specific transportation from Korea Health Panel data. Therefore, the transportation costs were assessed as 0.5% of the total direct costs, which is lower than that used by Lim et al [8].…”

“…In addition, we estimated the costs of entire age groups with stroke as the primary disease. Second, in the study by Lim et al [8], the cost of assistive devices was excluded due to the difficulty involved in quantification. In contrast, our study included the cost of assistive devices.…”

“…One study using an incidence-based approach calculated the lifetime cost per person, and found that the cost for a Korean man was expected to be $167,250 with an age of onset of 45 [7]. Another study by Lim et al estimated the economic burden of stroke in 2005 using a prevalence-based approach [8].…”

“…For example, it excluded the cost of assistive devices integral to rehabilitation. Studies conducted in developed countries have typically included the cost of assistive devices in the estimation of overall costs [1,2,8,9]. Because stroke is often accompanied by disabilities that impede the activities of daily living, the costs for rehabilitation, such as assistive devices, should be considered when measuring the economic burden of stroke [1].…”