Shamanna B R, Dandona L, Rao G N
Public Health Ophthalmology Service, L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India.
Indian J Ophthalmol. 1998 Sep;46(3):169-72.
Economic analysis is one way to determine the allocation of scarce resources for health-care programs. The initial step in this process is to estimate in economic terms the burden of diseases and the benefit from interventions for prevention and treatment of these diseases. In this paper, the direct and indirect economic loss due to blindness in India is calculated on the basis of certain assumptions. The cost of treating cataract blindness in India is estimated at current prices. The economic burden of blindness in India for the year 1997 based on our assumptions is Rs. 159 billion (US$ 4.4 billion), and the cumulative loss over lifetime of the blind is Rs. 2,787 billion (US$ 77.4 billion). Childhood blindness accounts for 28.7% of this lifetime loss. The cost of treating all cases of cataract blindness in India is Rs. 5.3 billion (US$ 0.15 billion). Similar estimates for causes of blindness other than cataract have to be made in order to develop a comprehensive approach to deal with blindness in India.
经济分析是确定医疗保健项目稀缺资源分配方式的一种途径。这一过程的第一步是以经济术语估算疾病负担以及预防和治疗这些疾病的干预措施所带来的益处。在本文中，基于某些假设计算了印度失明造成的直接和间接经济损失。印度治疗白内障致盲的成本按当前价格估算。基于我们的假设，1997年印度失明的经济负担为1590亿卢比（44亿美元），盲人一生的累积损失为27870亿卢比（774亿美元）。儿童期失明占这一生损失的28.7%。印度治疗所有白内障致盲病例的成本为53亿卢比（1.5亿美元）。为了制定应对印度失明问题的全面方法，必须对除白内障以外的失明原因进行类似估算。
