Economic burden of hepatitis C patients and related influencing factors in Guangdong province / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the economic burden of hepatitis C patients and related factors in Guangdong province.Methods In this study,cluster sampling method was used to select cases,including acute hepatitis C,chronic hepatitis C and liver cirrhosis cases from eligible outpatients and inpatients in 1 or 2 large general hospitals in all the 21 cities in Guangdong province.Questionnaire survey was conducted for all the hepatitis C patients to analyze their economic burden,while multivariate linear regression model was used to identify the related influencing factors.Results A total of 356 hepatitis C patients were enrolled in the study,with 176 outpatients (49.4％) and 180 inpatients (50.6％) respectively.The average age of the study subjects was (44.79± 11.73) year-olds.The annual direct economic costs of patients with acute hepatitis C,chronic hepatitis C and liver cirrhosis were 10 703.22 (IQR7 396.75-16 891.91),14 886.63 (IQR7 274.00-30 228.25) and 28 874.00 (IQR13 093.69-56 350.00) Yuan (RMB) respectively.The annual indirect costs appeared as 2 426.99 (IQR1 912.18-7 354.52),3 235.99 (IQR1 323.81-6 619.07) and 5 442.35 (IQR3 235.99-10 296.33) Yuan (RMB) respectively.The annual intangible costs were 5 000.00 (IQR2 000.00-10 000.00),10 000.00 (IQR4 000.00-30 000.00) and 10 000.00 (IQR3 000.00-100 000.00)Yuan (RMB) respectively.The annual total costs were 22 306.17 (IQR14 581.24-50 569.17),38 050.33 (IQR17 449.57-68 319.62) and 80 152.18 (IQR40 856.09-228 460.79) Yuan (RMB) respectively.Results from the multiple linear regression analysis showed that factors asannual hospitalization days,annual number of outpatient visits,annual number of hospitalization,type of disease and the levels of the hospitals were related to the economic burden of patients with hepatitis C.Conclusion Patients with HCV-related diseases presented serious economic problem which calls for close attention in Guangdong province.