[Analysis on the cost and its related factors of clinically confirmeds severe acute respiratory syndrome cases in Beijing].
OBJECTIVE
To explore the medical cost and its related factors of clinically confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) cases in Beijing.


METHODS
The average medical cost per person/day was calculated on 1272 SARS cases with complete hospitalization data from the Beijing SARS clinical database. Factors associated with medical expenditure were explored by both single factor and multi-factor analyses.


RESULTS
The medical costs of SARS patients in Beijing were 18 767.50 RMB/case and 632.02 RMB/day/case. Expenses on medication accounted for the highest proportion (0.66%). The increase in expenses on medication was significantly associated to the increase in total expenditure. Analyses by single factor, factor stratification as well as multi-factor analyses showed that: the expenditure increased significantly with the following factors of the patients: prolonged days of hospitalization, severe symptoms and signs, hospitalization at the early stage of disease onset, being medical staff themselves, with baseline diseases, being applied mechanical ventilation, and with medical insurance.


CONCLUSIONS
The medical expenditure on SARS patients at the hospital was higher than that on patients with common diseases which was associated to the following factors as: days of hospitalization, severity of disease, stage of the disease break-out, patient's occupation, baseline disease status, medical insurance status etc.
Xiao
Feng
F
Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing 100020, China.
Chen
Bo-wen
BW
Wu
Yang-feng
YF
Wang
Yue-xiang
YX
Han
De-min
DM
D000367:Age Factors; D002681:China; D017281:Cost of Illness; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000191:economics; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D012737:Sex Factors