OBJECTIVE To identify determinants of direct medical costs among patients with osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, back pain or fibromyalgia. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS Convenience sample of 410 patients undergoing outpatient rehabilitation. METHODS Resource use was assessed with a self-report retrospective questionnaire, and direct medical costs were calculated considering outp...

BACKGROUND The need for better healthcare has grown significantly in recent years. In addition, the rising healthcare costs in the U.S. and in many European countries have forced many patients to seek medical treatment abroad, which has created the demand for medical tourism. With little yet known as to the perception of a medical tourist's destination selection, this study aims to explore medi...

Prescribing of statins showed an increasing trend in all developed countries, during the last two decades. The aim of this study was to research the trends in statin consumption in the period from 2004 to 2012 as well as trends of cardiovascular mortality during the 1990 to 2012 period, and to compare them between Croatia and several neighbouring countries. Data on statin expenditures and consu...

Hospital acquired infections are a problem in both developed and developing countries despite overall progress. It significantly increases the patient’s length of stay in hospital resulting in higher hospital costs. Source of infection may be exogenous such as from the air, medical equipment, hands of surgeons and other staff or endogenous such as the skin flora in the operative site, or rarely...

BACKGROUND For the Japanese population, a body mass index (BMI) of 25.0-29.9 is classified as obesity and is a risk factor for cardiovascular disorders such as hypertension. METHODS A cohort study to clarify obesity costs for a Japanese population was conducted utilizing baseline BMI and medical costs over a 10-year follow-up period. The participants were 4502 community dwelling Japanese Nati...

OBJECTIVES The typical focus in discussions of healthcare spending is on direct medical costs such as physician reimbursement. The indirect costs of healthcare-patient opportunity costs associated with seeking care, for example-have not been adequately quantified. We aimed to quantify the opportunity costs for adults seeking medical care for themselves or others. STUDY DESIGN Secondary analys...

BACKGROUND Gastric cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in both sexes worldwide, especially in Eastern Asia. This study aimed to estimate the economic burden of advanced gastric cancer (AGC) in Taiwan. METHODS The costs of AGC in 2013 were estimated using resource use data from a chart review study (n = 122 with AGC) and national statistics. Annual per-patient costs, w...

INTRODUCTION Many studies have estimated national chronic disease costs, but state-level estimates are limited. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed the Chronic Disease Cost Calculator (CDCC), which estimates state-level costs for arthritis, asthma, cancer, congestive heart failure, coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke, other heart diseases, depression, and diabetes....

OBJECTIVE Osteoporotic fractures impose a huge economic burden on society. Though several cost of illness studies from other countries exist, no equivalent study has been conducted in Austria. Our study aims at assessing costs resulting from osteoporotic fractures in Austria in the year 2008 from a societal perspective. METHODS We took both direct and indirect costs into consideration. Direct...