COMMUNITY ACQUIRED PNEUMONIA;

Abstract

Background: The treatment cost of community acquired pneumonia in Pakistanis a heavy economic burden for the society. Objectives: To assess the component of directcost (ward cost, medication cost, laboratory and diagnosis cost and the length of stay cost) oftreatment of community acquired pneumonia patients admitted in hospital ward. Study Design:Prospective study. Period: 15 months. Setting: Three private hospitals among these hospitalsone of the hospital was a tertiary care university hospital situated in Karachi. Method: The studyenrolled 514 patients and the patients were included from three private hospitals. Spearmancorrelation statistical tool was used to determine the correlation among variables Whitney U testwas used to determine the cost in different groups. Results: A total of 514 cases were examined322 cases were male and 192 cases were females. The CAP cases were mostly prevalentin patients with the age between 1-5 years (192), in male, low socioeconomic status and inunmarried patients. The mean length of hospital stay was 5.31days found in patients admittedin the hospitals due to CAP. In this study the median medication cost of CAP per episode oftreatment was Rs 2423($24.25), median laboratory diagnosis cost was found Rs 1310($13.11),median length of stay in hospital cost was found Rs 5700($57.04) and the median total costof treatment was found Rs 9889($98.96). Conclusion: length of stay, laboratory diagnosisand the medication cost were the main components of direct cost of treatment of hospitalizedcap patients. Age, comorbidity, PSI, laboratory diagnosis and length of stay was positivelycorrelated with the direct cost of treatment of CAP. Gender difference was not correlated withthe direct cost of treatment of CAP. The direct cost, drug cost, hospital stay cost increases asthe pneumonia severity index increases, but in case of laboratory diagnosis cost is initially lessin PSI I and increases in the PSI class II but remain same from PSI III to PSI V.