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Copyright ©ERS Journals Ltd 2003
The economic impact of preschool asthma and wheeze
1 Leicester Children's Asthma Centre and 2 Dept of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Leicester, Leicester, and 4 Respiratory Unit, Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital, Liverpool, UK. 3 Dept of Social and Preventive Medicine and University Children's Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
CORRESPONDENCE: C.A. Stevens, Division of Primary Care, 13th Floor, Tower Building, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK. Fax: 44 1158466904. E-mail: Caroline.Mulvaney@nottingham.ac.uk
Keywords: asthma, health, preschool, society and family costs, wheeze
Received: July 1, 2002
Accepted January 6, 2003
This study was funded by the National Health Service (NHS) Executive Mother and Child Health Programme, London, UK (MCH 16-15). The population survey was funded by the Swiss National Science foundation, Bern, Switzerland (SNF No. 823B – 046481) and the Trent NHS Executive, Sheffield, UK (RBF No. 98XX3).
The aim of the present study was to determine the economic impact in the UK of wheezing disorders in preschool children.
Health, societal and family-borne costs were calculated for a sample of 94 preschool children who attended hospital with a primary diagnosis of wheeze or asthma during 1998/1999. Sample costs were calculated using data from a structured interview schedule and from symptom diaries completed by trial parents, patients' general practice and hospital records, and hospital finance data. Health costs for 1–5-yr-olds inthe UK were calculated using data from a postal population survey in the same region.
It is estimated that 1–5-yr-old children with wheeze in the UK cost the health service a total of 53 million UK pounds (GBP). The greatest expenditure, 34 million GBP, was for primary care, representing 65.2% of total healthcare costs. Prescription costs represented 20.4% (11 million GBP) of total healthcare costs.
Caring for preschool children with wheeze in the UK cost the health service 0.15% of its total budget in 1998/1999. The total costs to society of caring for the 0.88% of preschool children who attended hospital for asthma or wheeze in a year represented a further 2.6 million UK pounds. Primary prevention strategies at the population level promise more cost savings than any attempt at decreasing hospitalisations in those more severely ill.
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