Cost of Illness Study of Patients with Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever at One of the Private Hospitals in Yogyakarta

Abstract

Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) caused by the dengue virus is one of the high-prevalence diseases in tropical countries, such as Indonesia. It has been highlighted that high-prevalence diseases are strongly correlated with high-treatment costs. In particular, Yogyakarta has been reported as one of the provinces with a high prevalence of DHF. This study aimed to estimate the cost of illness because of DHF and to analyze the correlation between the use of drugs with its cost and length of stay, with total hospital administrative cost at one of the private hospitals in Yogyakarta. A cross-sectional study was applied in this study by collecting patients’ medical record and financial data, such as demographic characteristic, medication, length of stay, and direct medical cost health-care perspective. The numbers of dengue patients were applied in this study by considering 87 patients and 143 patients with DHF in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Indirect medical costs were collected from a questionnaire by 20 respondents. Spearman’s statistical test was used in this study to conduct the bivariate test. The average direct medical cost from the perspective of health care in 2015 and 2016 in DHF patients with Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial (BPJS) insurance and non-BPJS insurance was US$243.6; US$363.41 and US$368.13; US$427.03. The indirect medical costs showed that the highest percentage productivity loss was US$70.98–212.95. Correlation between the numbers of drug with drug cost was significant (P < 0.05) with correlation coefficient (value ρ) of 0.527 and 0.603. Correlation between lengths of stay with the cost of hospitalization was significant (P < 0.05) with correlation coefficient (value ρ) of 0.375 and 0.562. It can be concluded that DHF has a relatively high cost of illness both in direct and indirect costs.

Keywords

• cost of illness
• dengue hemorrhagic fever