Marrero AMC, García FA

Language: Spanish
References: 0
Page: 610-612
PDF size: 39.66 Kb.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: It is required to know the cost of pneumococcal disease in children in order to allocate and manage the adequate resources for treatment and to support the cost-effectiveness study of preventive interventions.
Objective: To describe the methodological strategies for estimation of the cost of care for pneumococcal disease in children at the primary health care.
Data source: A literature and documentary review was made in which the search strategy comprised cost, pneumococcal disease, primary health care and children. Those articles in Spanish and English indexed in Scielo, PubMed and in Schoolar Google were included. Seventeen publications were identified.
Data synthesis: The conceptual and methodological aspects were addressed in a similar way in all the studies. Among the clinical outcomes were meningitis, sepsis, pneumonia and otitis media. The most frequently used perspective was institutional one. The studies focused on direct medical costs on the basis of salary items, diagnostic tests and medications. The cost strategy combined the Top-Down, the Down-Up or Microcosts and Type or Standard Case methods.
Conclusions: There are few studies on the pneumococcal disease cost in children at the primary health care. The methodological designs are associated with comprehensive economic assessments, include most of the clinical outcomes, and focus on institutional costs. The combination of different costing methods characterizes the study of this topic.