Disease Burden Costs Research Articles

010 Correlation of psoriasis severity with burden of disease cost in psoriatic patients

Access to an electronic data warehouse (EDW) of psoriasis patient data is a rich source of information for big data analytics. University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (UHCMC) employs a central data archive obtained from various primary sources (inpatient, outpatient, billing etc…). Psoriasis is increasingly being regarded as a systemic inflammatory disorder with various comorbid diseases associated with a high burden of disease. We examined whether or not severe psoriasis patients have a greater associated cost-of-illness and determined if any unique patient cohorts (endotype) could be associated with psoriatic patients with differing burden rates.

Analysis of diseases incurring poverty and its cost burden in Nanyang city of Henan province

Objective To investigate the disease types incurring poverty, patient population layout, and cost burden by poor households due to illness. Methods During the time August 17-24, 2017, App questionnaires were used onsite for data survey at 2 824 poor hourseholds in Nanyang city of Henan province, in order to learn the impacts of the poverty-causing diseases on the labor capacity of the patients and the cost burdens. Such methods as descriptive analysis, rank sum test and correlation analysis were used for data analysis. Results The survey found that 61.79 percent(1 745 households)of the poor households turned poor by illness, most of them aged 40 to 60 years old. The ten disease categories, namely cerebrovascular diseases, malignant tumor, ischemic heart diseases and mental diseases, constitute top disease causes of poverty.These diseases significantly damage their labor capacity, up to 37.67% of them totally disabled. The self-paid expenses of the patients per year accounted for 57.22% of the total annual expenses. Conclusions Medical insurance policies need to elevate the scope and efforts of medical compensation; public health services need to improve health promotion and health education; government supervision needs to be enhanced to keep minimizing patients′ disease burdens. Key words: Social security; Health poverty alleviation; Burden of disease cost; Henan province; Poor households

Correlation of financial burden with severity of asthma in children

Introduction: Urbanisation is causing a rise in the financial burden of Asthma in children and it varies with the disease severity. Asthma has a low public health priority and is often under diagnosed and treated inappropriately. Objectives: Our aim was to correlate the financial burden of disease costs with Asthma classification. Methods: It was a prospective study of 38 patients attending paediatric pulmonology clinic in a tertiary care hospital. Details were entered in a predesigned proforma and institutional ethics committee approval was taken. Quantitative statistical analysis using mean, standard deviation and applying one way ANNOVA test was done. Results: Intermittent, mild and moderate persistent asthma were 8 (21.05%), 21(55.26%) and 9(23.68%) respectively. Majority of the patients;19 (50%) belonged to the upper middle class.The direct mean costs across severities ranged between INR 5700-7400 for general practitioner consultation, INR 3550-10300 for emergency visits, INR 4500-9000 for investigations and INR 7000-13700 for medications. The indirect costs ranged between INR 9000-19800 on daily wages lost, INR 2900-8700 on travel expenses (significant p value<0.014) between mild and moderate persistent asthma. Mean costs on food ranged between INR 1700-3200, tuitions INR 3000-5700 and miscellaneous expenditure being INR 2000-8300.The percentage of annual income spent was 28.76%, 40.99% and 60.64% in intermittent, mild and moderate persistent asthma respectively. Conclusion: Early referral, diligent counselling, physician and parents education along with good compliance would impart effective control and thereby reduce economic burden.

Protecting public health using environmental impact assessment in Malawi

Development that does not adequately consider human health may pass increased disease burden costs to surrounding communities. EIA as a tool of sustainable development can be used to protect public health. The aim of this paper is to look at coverage of health impacts in the EIA system in Malawi. Under the current EIA system, EIA can be used to protect public health in Malawi. In EIA reports relationships between projects and determinants of health are merely discussed as they relate to conformance with legislation and standards. There is a need to promote specialised methods to tackle health impacts and also greater involvement of health institutions and professionals in EIA. In Malawi, it is possible to assess the impacts on health adequately within the EIA context and not necessarily in a distinct and stand-alone health impact assessment.