Analysis Of Economic Burden And Influnce Factors Of Bronchial Asthma In Jinan

Objectives:To obtain data of treatment costs and loss of working and study time, to understand economic burden of bronchial asthma patients, and to analyze relevant influence factors so as to offer feasible suggestions to control asthma exacerbations and lower medical costs of the disease.Methods:A population-based, cross-sectional survey was conducted. With the multi-stage stratified random sampling method, we first divided all the Jinan residents into urban and rural ones in view of the large socioeconomic differences between them. In collaboration with the local government, all the family members of registered residents who have settled here for at least six months in randomly selected census tracts were recruited to participate in the study. Each subject was given a face-to-face interview with a standard questionnaire revised from GINA (2008version) and ISAAC, while those suspected as potential patient were further interviewed. Only those who claimed to have a history of bronchial asthma, or ever suffered intermittent episodes (≥3times) of dyspnea, wheezing, cough or the presence of high pitched wheezing during prolonged expiration, could be diagnosed as asthma after the exclusion of other cardiopulmonary diseases. All collected data were then double-checked and entered into Access database by two persons independently. Based on the current prevalence of asthma, the economic burden of the urban residents and their rural fellows was valued following direct method and human capital approach. All statistical analysis were performed with SPSS statistical software (Version13.0; SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL). Both chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to determine the possible factors which influenced the medical costs for asthma. Results:Up to98.3%samples were eligible,(13419of13645total,6571males and6848females, among which6995were urban residents and the rest6424were from rural regions). As the overall prevalence of asthma was1.1%, the overall cost on bronchial asthma was RMB301.3190million and thus RMB4543.26was allotted per person per year. What’s more, the direct medical costs accounted for RMB253.4732million while the rest RMB47.7885million was spent on indirect medical costs. costs accounted for RMB274million in the urban areas, and RMB160million in the rural areas. The cost of bronchial asthma in Jinan was found to be strongly correlated with comorbidities (especially rhinitis and other cardiopulmonary diseases), hospitalization, treatment standardized according to GINA. and smoking index.Conclusion:Overall, bronchial asthma can become heavy economic burden for both patients’families and society, while the cost was strongly correlated with comorbidities, hospitalization, smoke index and Not treatment standardized according to GINA. All the above should be taken into consideration when therapies were decided so that good control of asthma exacerbations and lower medical costs could be finally achieved.