Background

Dengue-related illness is a leading cause of hospitalization and death in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries, imposing a major economic burden on households, health systems, and governments. This study aims to assess the economic impact of hospitalized dengue cases on households in Chachoengsao province in eastern Thailand.

Methods

We conducted a prospective cost-of-illness study of hospitalized pediatric and adult dengue patients at three public hospitals. We examined all hospitalized dengue cases regardless of disease severity. Patients or their legal guardians were interviewed using a standard questionnaire to determine household-level medical and non-medical expenditures and income losses during the illness episode.

Results

Between March and September 2015, we recruited a total of 224 hospitalized patients (<5 years, 4%; 5–14 years, 20%, 15–24 years, 36%, 25–34 years, 15%; 35–44 years, 10%; 45+ years, 12%), who were clinically diagnosed with dengue. The total cost of a hospitalized dengue case was higher for adult patients than pediatric patients, and was US$153.6 and US$166.3 for pediatric DF and DHF patients, respectively, and US$171.2 and US$226.1 for adult DF and DHF patients, respectively. The financial burden on households increased with the severity of dengue illness.

Conclusions

Although 74% of the households reported that the patient received free medical care, hospitalized dengue illness cost approximately 19–23% of the monthly household income. These results indicated that dengue imposed a substantial financial burden on households in Thailand where a great majority of the population was covered by the Universal Coverage Scheme for health care.

中文翻译：

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半农村泰国住院登革热疾病的家庭成本

背景

与登革热有关的疾病是泰国和其他东南亚国家住院和死亡的主要原因，给家庭，卫生系统和政府带来了巨大的经济负担。本研究旨在评估泰国东部北柳府的住院登革热病例对家庭的经济影响。

方法

我们在三所公立医院对住院的儿科和成人登革热患者进行了一项前瞻性疾病成本研究。我们检查了所有住院的登革热病例，无论疾病的严重程度如何。使用标准调查表对患者或其法定监护人进行了采访，以确定患病期间家庭水平的医疗和非医疗支出以及收入损失。

结果

在2015年3月至2015年9月之间，我们共招募了224名住院患者（<5年，4％； 5-14岁，20％，15-24岁，36％，25-34岁，15％； 35-44岁（10％； 45岁以上，占12％），他们在临床上被诊断出患有登革热。成年患者住院登革热病例的总费用高于儿科患者，儿科DF和DHF患者分别为153.6美元和166.3美元，成人DF和DHF患者分别为171.2美元和226.1美元。登革热的严重程度增加了家庭的经济负担。

结论

尽管有74％的家庭报告该患者获得了免费医疗，但住院登革热疾病的费用约占家庭每月收入的19-23％。这些结果表明，登革热给泰国的家庭带来了沉重的经济负担，泰国的绝大多数人口都获得了全民医疗保健计划的覆盖。