Institute of Health and Care Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
University of Gothenburg Centre for Person-Centred Care, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
BMJ Open. 2019 Mar 1;9(2):e027814. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-027814.
Little is known about the economic impact of takotsubo syndrome (TS) for patients and the health system after initial discharge from hospital. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe the healthcare resource use and calculate direct healthcare costs for TS, from hospitalisation to 6 months after discharge, and explore the distribution of costs between TS and other diagnoses among patients with TS.
METHOD, PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Cohort study investigating direct healthcare costs from hospitalisation, open specialised outpatient and primary care. Healthcare resource use during 6 months after diagnosis with TS was collected for 58 consecutive patients from the Regional Patient Register. Incidence-based direct healthcare costs, in 2015 values, were calculated using diagnosis-related group weights and unit costs from national statistics on healthcare costs.
The mean length of hospital stay was 10.2 days, index 6.4 and re-admissions 3.8 days. The mean number of follow-up encounters per patient was 15.6, of which two-thirds was specialised outpatient and one-third was primary care. This resulted in an average cost of €10 360. Of this, costs of €8026 (77.5%) occurred during encounters for which at least one of the registered conditions was cardiovascular. Costs differed little according to background characteristics.
This study shows that patients utilise hospital, specialised outpatient and primary care after discharge for TS. Most direct healthcare costs relate to cardiac diagnoses. Patients with TS would probably benefit from a supportive follow-up programme after discharge from hospital.
关于 Takotsubo 综合征（TS）患者在出院后的经济影响及其对卫生系统的影响，我们知之甚少。因此，本研究旨在描述 TS 患者从住院到出院后 6 个月的医疗资源使用情况，并计算直接医疗费用，并探讨 TS 患者的医疗费用分布在 TS 和其他诊断之间的情况。
方法、参与者和设置：本研究为队列研究，调查了住院、开放专科门诊和初级保健的直接医疗费用。从区域患者登记处连续收集了 58 例确诊为 TS 的患者在 6 个月内的医疗资源使用情况。根据国家医疗成本统计数据中的诊断相关组权重和单位成本，计算了以 2015 年为基准的基于发病率的直接医疗费用。
住院平均时长为 10.2 天，指数为 6.4，再入院时长为 3.8 天。每位患者的平均随访次数为 15.6 次，其中三分之二是专科门诊，三分之一是初级保健。这导致平均费用为 10360 欧元。其中，8026 欧元（77.5%）的费用发生在至少有一个登记的心血管疾病的就诊中。成本与背景特征差异不大。
本研究表明，TS 患者在出院后会利用医院、专科门诊和初级保健。大多数直接医疗费用与心脏诊断有关。TS 患者可能会受益于出院后的支持性随访计划。
