Economic Impact on Health-Care Costs Related to Major Diseases Including HIV/AIDS due to Alcohol Drinking among Thai Populations |
| |
Authors: | Prapag Neramitpitagkul BScPharm MSc Chanida Lertpitakpong BSc MA Jomkwan Yothasamut BA MA Montarat Thavorncharoensap BScPharm PhD Usa Chaikledkaew BScPharm MA PhD Yot Teerawattananon MD PhD |
| |
Institution: | Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand;;Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program, Ministry of Public Health, Nonthaburi, Thailand |
| |
Abstract: | Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate health-care costs because of diseases caused by alcohol consumption based on health system's perspective. Methods: Total direct health-care costs of alcohol drinking were the summation of the costs of alcohol drinking in inpatient and outpatient departments due to chronic diseases and acute conditions using prevalence-based approach. The alcohol-attributable fractions, defined as the proportion of a disease or acute condition in a population attributable to alcohol drinking, were calculated to obtain the number of patients in each disease or acute condition attributable to alcohol drinking. Health-care costs of alcohol drinking were estimated by multiplying the number of patients in each disease category attributable to alcohol drinking with the unit cost of treatment. Results: Total health-care costs attributed to alcohol in this research were 5491 million baht (i.e., outpatient department 2488 million baht] and inpatient department 3003 million baht]). Cost derived from inpatient department accounted for 55% of the total health-care cost attributed to alcohol. Conclusions: The result of this study suggested that alcohol drinking was significantly associated with a large number of health-care costs in Thailand. Estimation of health-care costs related to alcohol drinking would provide an important insight into future policy appraisal and evaluation. |
| |
Keywords: | alcohol health-care cost Thailand |
|
|