The economic impact of asthma treatment on patients, 2014-2017: The Vietnamese experience from a public hospital

Objectives: To estimate the economic burden of asthma treatment by quantifying direct medical expenditures at one of Southern Vietnam's public hospitals base on the hospital perspective. Methods: A retrospective, prevalence-based, cost-of-illness analysis was developed using the hospital's electronic medical record data to calculate the economic burden of asthma (ICD-10 code J45, J46) through direct medical costs from January 2014 to December 2017. All costs were converted to US dollars and to the year 2018. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The potential correlations between variables were evaluated using the chi-square test and bootstrap difference. Results: The average direct medical cost of asthma was estimated to range from $34.7 to $55.3 per - outpatient and $45.1 to $107.2 per - inpatient annually. The total economic burdens for 4 years from 2014 to 2017 were $110,387.4 from outpatients and $13,413.8 from inpatients. The most influential component was medication cost. Conclusions: Asthma places a high economic burden on individuals and the healthcare system in Vietnam. The findings of this study provide health administrators with important evidence to enhance surveillance of the disease and to allow suitable drafting of national health policy.