Abstract

BackgroundSchizophrenia is one of the leading public health issues in psychiatry and imposes a heavy financial burden on the healthcare systems. This study aims to report the direct medical costs and the associated factors for patients with schizophrenia in Guangzhou city, Southern China.MethodsThis was a retrospective 4-year cohort study. Data were obtained from urban health insurance claims databases of Guangzhou city, which contains patients’ sociodemographic characteristics, direct medical costs of inpatient and outpatient care. The study cohort (including all the reimbursement claims submitted for schizophrenia inpatient care during November 2010 and October 2014) was identified using the International Classification of Diseases Tenth version (F20). Their outpatient care information was merged from outpatient claims database. Descriptive analysis and the multivariate regression analysis based on Generalized Estimating Equations model were conducted.ResultsA total of 2971 patients were identified in the baseline. The cohort had a mean age of 50.3 years old, 60.6% were male, and 67.0% received medical treatment in the tertiary hospitals. The average annual length of stay was 254.7 days. The average annual total direct medical costs per patient was 41,972.4 Chinese Yuan (CNY) ($6852.5). The inpatient costs remained as the key component of total medical costs. The Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance enrollees with schizophrenia had higher average costs for hospitalization (CNY42,375.1) than the Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance enrollees (CNY40,917.3), and had higher reimbursement rate (85.8% and 61.5%). The non-medication treatment costs accounted for the biggest proportion of inpatient costs for both schemes (55.8% and 64.7%). Regression analysis suggested that insurance type, age, hospital levels, and length of stay were significantly associated with inpatient costs of schizophrenia.ConclusionsThe direct annual medical costs of schizophrenia were high and varied by types of insurance in urban China. The findings of this study provide vital information to understand the burden of schizophrenia in China. Results of this study can help decision-makers assess the financial impact of schizophrenia.

Highlights

  • Schizophrenia is one of the leading public health issues in psychiatry and is ranked among the top 25 leading causes of disability worldwide [1, 2]

  • Different from previous literature, this study aims to examine the direct medical costs for patients with schizophrenia and the factors that were associated with the inpatient costs using a 4-year health insurance claims data from the largest city in Southern China

  • This study found that insurance type, age, hospital levels, and length of stay (LOS) were significantly associated with inpatient costs

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Schizophrenia is one of the leading public health issues in psychiatry and is ranked among the top 25 leading causes of disability worldwide [1, 2]. A meta-analysis study estimated the worldwide prevalence of schizophrenia to be 0.54% [3]. Schizophrenia imposed a heavy financial burden on the healthcare systems. A review of cost-of-illness studies for schizophrenia worldwide reported that the direct medical costs of treating schizophrenia accounted for between 1.4 and 3.0% of total national health expenditures [5]. In China, schizophrenia has been reported to contribute 1.3% of the total burden of disease [7]. Schizophrenia is one of the leading public health issues in psychiatry and imposes a heavy financial burden on the healthcare systems. This study aims to report the direct medical costs and the associated factors for patients with schizophrenia in Guangzhou city, Southern China

Objectives
Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call