Direct Costs of Healthcare among Patients with Deliberate Self-harm: A Pilot Study from a Tertiary Care Hospital in South India.

Abstract

Deliberate self-harm (DSH) in developing nations has a significant impact on health and economic conditions of patients and families. This retrospective study aims to study the cost of hospitalization and the factors affecting the cost of medical care. Adult patients with a diagnosis of DSH were included. A total of 107 patients were included with the most common type of poison consumed being pesticides (35.5%) followed by a tablet overdose (31.8%). There was a male preponderance with a mean (SD) age of 30.04 (9.03) years. The median cost of admission was ₹13,690 (USD 195.57); DSH with pesticide increased the cost of care by 67% as compared to non-pesticides. Other factors which increased the cost were need for intensive care, ventilation, use of vasopressors, and development of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Pesticide-based poisoning is the most frequent cause of DSH. Among different types of DSH, pesticide poisoning is associated with a higher direct cost of hospitalization. Barnabas R, Yadav B, Jayakaran J, Gunasekaran K, Johnson J, Pichamuthu K, et al. Direct Costs of Healthcare among Patients with Deliberate Self-harm: A Pilot Study from a Tertiary Care Hospital in South India. Indian J Crit Care Med 2022;26(7):836-838.