Volume 36, Issue 1 (1-2022)                   Med J Islam Repub Iran 2022 | Back to browse issues page


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Khandehroo M, Dorri M, Paykani T, Khajavi A, Joshani-Kheibari M, Esmaeili R. Direct Inpatient Cost and Payments of COVID-19 in Iran: Quantile Regression Analysis. Med J Islam Repub Iran 2022; 36 (1) :759-764
URL: http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/article-1-7979-en.html
Department of Public Health, School of Health, Social Development and Health Promotion Research Center, Gonabad University of Medical Sciences, Gonabad, Iran , esmaeili.r@gmu.ac.ir
Abstract:   (904 Views)

Background: COVID-19 pandemic imposes a substantial medical and socioeconomic burden on health systems. The study aimed to estimate the direct inpatient costs of COVID-19 in Iran.
   Methods: This is a Cost of Illness (COI) study with the bottom-up method. Provider perspective and prevalence approach were applied for cost identification. Data included inpatient charges and clinical characteristics of all COVID-19 cases (2015 patients) admitted to a teaching hospital during a financial year (March 2020 to February 2021). We extracted data from Hospital Information System (HIS) and applied the quantile regression to estimate determinant factors of COVID-19 inpatient cost using STATA software.
   Results: 1026 (50.92%) of admitted COVID-19 patients were female, and 42.3% were older than 65 years. More than 82% of discharged COVID-19 patients in this study recovered. 189 (9.38%) patients admitted to ICUs. Length of Stay (LOS) for about 70% of admitted COVID-19 cases was 7 days or less. The Total Inpatient Charges (TIC) was 155,372,056,826 Rials (5,041,836 PPP USD). The median charge was 42,410,477 Rials, and Average Inpatient Charges (AIC) was 77,107,720±110,051,702 (2,461 PPP USD) per person. Drugs and supplies accounted for 37% of total inpatient charges. Basic insurance companies would pay more than 79% of total claims and the share of Out-of-Pocket Payments (OOP) was 7%. ICUs admission and LOS of more than 3 days are associated with higher costs across all percentiles of the cost distribution (p<0.001).
   Conclusion: This study call attention to the substantial economic burden based on real-world data. According to the broad socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 and also multiple components of COI study designs, conducting meta-analysis approaches is needed to combine results from independent studies.

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