Costs of illness, 1980: a comparison of hospital costs in New South Wales and the United States.
Cost of illness studies are an important component of cost-benefit analysis and a useful tool in health policy analysis. In this study an attempt is made to emulate major US cost of illness studies in NSW, for hospital costs only, and to compare the NSW results to the US. In NSW circulatory diseases are the greatest single disease category by a considerable margin ($230 million), with injury the next highest category ($139 million) and then digestive disorders, mental disorders and neoplasm ranking almost equal third (around $110 million each). In both the US and NSW the top 5 ranking categories in per capita expenditure are circulatory diseases, injury, digestive disorders, mental disorders and neoplasm. Per capita costs are greater in the US. In NSW a higher proportion of hospital costs is expended on patients over the age of 65 years in comparison to the US.
D001509:Bed Occupancy; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D004194:Disease / Q000191:economics*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D009517:New South Wales; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014481:United States