Maqsood Ahmed Khan, Baqir Shyum Naqvi, Ali Akber Sial, Farya Zafar, Saquib Qureshi.
Community Acquired Pneumonia; Assessment Of Components Of Direct Cost Of Treatment Of Hospitalized Patients In Karachi.
Professional Med J Jan ;24(6):843-9.

Background: The treatment cost of community acquired pneumonia in Pakistan is a heavy economic burden for the society. Objectives: To assess the component of direct cost (ward cost, medication cost, laboratory and diagnosis cost and the length of stay cost) of treatment of community acquired pneumonia patients admitted in hospital ward. Study Design: Prospective study. Period: 15 months. Setting: Three private hospitals among these hospitals one of the hospital was a tertiary care university hospital situated in Karachi. Method: The study enrolled 514 patients and the patients were included from three private hospitals. Spearman correlation statistical tool was used to determine the correlation among variables Whitney U test was used to determine the cost in different groups. Results: A total of 514 cases were examined 322 cases were male and 192 cases were females. The CAP cases were mostly prevalent in patients with the age between 1-5 years (192), in male, low socioeconomic status and in unmarried patients. The mean length of hospital stay was 5.31days found in patients admitted in the hospitals due to CAP. In this study the median medication cost of CAP per episode of treatment was Rs 2423($24.25), median laboratory diagnosis cost was found Rs 1310($13.11), median length of stay in hospital cost was found Rs 5700($57.04) and the median total cost of treatment was found Rs 9889($98.96). Conclusion: length of stay, laboratory diagnosis and the medication cost were the main components of direct cost of treatment of hospitalized cap patients. Age, comorbidity, PSI, laboratory diagnosis and length of stay was positively correlated with the direct cost of treatment of CAP. Gender difference was not correlated with the direct cost of treatment of CAP. The direct cost, drug cost, hospital stay cost increases as the pneumonia severity index increases, but in case of laboratory diagnosis cost is initially less in PSI I and increases in the PSI class II but remain same from PSI III to PSI V.

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