Cost of lung cancer in East Azerbaijan province, in Iran, in 2017

Abstract

Purpose

Costs estimation is essential and important to resource allocation and prioritizing different interventions in the health system. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the costs of lung cancer in Iran, in 2017.

Design/methodology/approach

This was a prevalence-based cost of illness study with a bottom-up approach costing conducted from October 2016 to April 2017. The sample included 645 patients who referred to Imam Reza hospital, Tabriz, Iran, in 2017. Follow-up interviews were every two months. Hospitalization costs extracted from the patient’s record and outpatient costs, nondirect medical costs and indirect costs collected using questionnaire. SPSS software version 22 was used for the data analysis.

Findings

Mean direct medical costs, nondirect medical costs and indirect costs amounted to 36,637.02 ± 23,515.13 PPP (2016) (251,313,217.83 Rials), 2,025.25 ± 3,303.72 PPP (2016) (16,613,202.53 Rials) and 48,348.55 ± 34,371.84 PPP (2016) (396,599,494.56 Rials), respectively. There was a significant and negative correlation between direct medical costs, direct nonmedical costs, indirect costs and age at diagnosis, and there was a significant and positive correlation between the length of hospital stay and direct medical cost.

Originality/value

As the cost of lung cancer is substantial and there have been little studies in this area, the objective of this study is to investigate the cost of lung cancer and present ways to tackle this.

Citation

Mir, H., Seyednejad, F., Jalilian, H., Nosratnejad, S. and Yousefi, M. (2020), "Cost of lung cancer in East Azerbaijan province, in Iran, in 2017", International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 461-470. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPHM-08-2019-0055