Economic burden of influenza illness among children under 5 years in Suzhou, China: Report from the cost surveys during 2011/12 to 2016/17 influenza seasons
•We assessed economic burden of influenza in children <5 in Suzhou from 2011-2017.•Cost per illness episode was $161 for outpatient and $1426 for hospitalization.•Annual economic burden of influenza among children <5 in Suzhou was $7.4 million.•Indirect costs accounted for 22-36% of the total...
Saved in:
Published in | Vaccine Vol. 39; no. 8; pp. 1303 - 1309 |
---|---|
Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Netherlands
Elsevier Ltd
22.02.2021
Elsevier Limited |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | •We assessed economic burden of influenza in children <5 in Suzhou from 2011-2017.•Cost per illness episode was $161 for outpatient and $1426 for hospitalization.•Annual economic burden of influenza among children <5 in Suzhou was $7.4 million.•Indirect costs accounted for 22-36% of the total annual economic burden.•Influenza in children <5 in Suzhou results in a substantial annual economic burden.
Data are limited on the economic burden of seasonal influenza in China. We estimated the cost due to influenza illness among children < 5-year-old in Suzhou, China.
This study adopted a societal perspective to estimate direct medical cost, direct non-medical cost, and indirect cost related to lost productivity. Data to calculate costs and rates of three influenza illness outcomes (non-medically attended, outpatient and hospitalization) were collected from prospective community-based cohort studies and hospital-based enhanced laboratory-confirmed influenza surveillance in Suzhou during the 2011/12 to 2016/17 influenza seasons. We used mean cost-per-episode, annual incidence rates of episodes of each outcome, and annual population size to estimate the total annual economic burden of influenza illnesses among children < 5-year-old for Suzhou. All costs were reported in 2017 U.S. dollars.
The mean cost-per-episode (standard deviation) was $9.92 (13.26) for non-medically attended influenza, $161.05 (176.98) for influenza outpatient illnesses, and $1425.95 (603.59) for influenza hospitalizations. By applying the annual incidence rates to the population size, we estimated an annual total of 4,919 episodes of non-medically attended influenza, 21,994 influenza outpatient, and 2,633 influenza hospitalization. Total annual economic burden of influenza to society among children < 5-year-old in Suzhou was $7.37 (95% confidence interval, 6.9–7.8) million, with estimated costs for non-medically attended influenza of $49,000 (46,000–52,000), influenza outpatients $3.5 (3.3–3.8) million, and influenza hospitalizations $3.8 (3.6–3.9) million. Among outpatients, the indirect cost was 36.3% ($1.3 million) of total economic burden, accounting for 21,994 days of lost productivity annually. Among inpatients, the indirect cost was 22.1% ($829,000), accounting for 18,431 days of lost productivity annually.
Our findings show that influenza in children < 5-year-oldcauses substantial societal economic burden in Suzhou, China. Assessing the potential economic benefit of increasing influenza vaccination coverage in this population is warranted. |
---|---|
Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0264-410X 1873-2518 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.12.075 |