title: Costs for stroke in Sweden 2009 and developments since 1997.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to estimate direct and indirect excess costs attributable to stroke in Sweden in 2009 and to compare these with similar estimates from 1997.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data on first-ever stoke admissions in the first half of 2009 from the Swedish national stroke register (RS) were used for cost calculations and compared with results from 1997 also using RS data. A societal perspective was taken including the acute and follow-up phase, rehabilitation, stroke re-admissions, drugs, home- and residential care services for activities of daily life (ADL) support, and indirect costs for premature death and productivity losses (2009 prices). Survival was extrapolated to estimate the lifetime present value cost of stroke.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The societal lifetime present value cost for stroke in 2009 was €68,800 per patient (ADL support: 59 percent; productivity losses: 21 percent). Women had higher costs than men in all age groups as a result from greater need for ADL support. Patients treated at a stroke unit indicated low incremental cost per life-year gained compared with those who had not. The total lifetime cost increased between 1997 and 2009. Hospitalization costs per patient were stable, while long-term costs for home- and residential care services increased.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Changes in patient characteristics, longer expected survival, and possibly in the Swedish stroke care, have led to higher annual and lifetime costs per patient in 2009 compared with 1997. A comprehensive national stroke care performance register like RS may be suitable for health economic assessments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine,Umeå University.
authors.forename: Ola
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ghatnekar
authors.affiliation: Swedish Institute for Health Economics.
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Persson
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine,Umeå University.
authors.forename: Kjell
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Asplund
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine,Umeå University.
authors.forename: Eva-Lotta
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Glader
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020521:Stroke / Q000191:economics*; D013548:Sweden