ESTIMATION OF DIRECT AND INDIRECT COST OF DIABETIC NEPHROPATHY PATIENTS UNDERGOING DIALYSIS AND CONSTRUCTION OF COST DIARY - A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

aBSTRACT

The economic burden resulting from Diabetic Nephropathy (DN) involves or consumes a major portion of resources allocated for health-care services. The objective of this study is to estimate the direct and indirect cost of diabetic nephropathy patients undergoing dialysis. A cross sectional study was conducted among 200 patients who have undergone dialysis in a respected dialysis center in five different states, Kedah, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Perak, and Selangor, Malaysia from November 2010 until August 2011. All the data collected is analyzed using SPSS version 19.0. Percentage of DN patient is found to be higher in Malays (36%) with males having higher percentage of 61.0% compared to females with 39.0%. There is a growing trend with an age group of 51 to 60 (42.0%) and 61 to 70 (46.5). The results showed that 3.8% of patients spend approximately below RM 200/month, 26.0% patient spend RM 200 to RM 400/month, 41.8% of patients spend RM 400 to RM 800/month and 28.4% patient spend RM 800 to RM 1200/month. As for medical checkup expenses, 5.5% of patient spend approximately RM 1 to RM 50/month, 61% of patient spend RM 51 to RM 100, 28% of patient around RM 101 to RM 150 and 5.5 % of them spend RM 151 to RM 200/month. As the trend and number of patients those undergo dialysis are increasing and currently most of the patients are covered by particular organizations including government for their cost but in future it will burden the countries’ expenses. A cost diary will be constructed in order to cheap trx canada find measures to reduce these expenses and manage the patients’ cost effectively with the help of pharmacists.

KEYWORDS: Direct and indirect cost in diabetic nephropathy patient, Estimation.