|
KMID : 1143420200130191323
|
|
Public Health Weekly Report
2020 Volume.13 No. 19 p.1323 ~ p.1335
|
|
|
Cost of Viral Hepatitis B in the Republic of Korea, 2002-2015
|
|
Baik Da-Hye
Kim Byung-Woo
O Jin-Kyoungh
Ki Mo-Ran
Kim Kyung-Ah
|
|
|
Abstract
|
|
|
In Korea, the positive rate of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) gradually decreased due to the national hepatitis B
vaccination program introduced in the 1990s, but has remained at 3% in recent decades. Despite the high prevalence of
HBsAg there have been no cost burden studies conducted to analyze the recent trends of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection
following the revision of clinical practice guidelines regarding chronic hepatitis B management (2011 and 2014). Therefore,
the objective of this study was to estimate the cost burden of viral hepatitis B and determine the trends in the changes in its costs between 2002 and 2015. This study was conducted using the health insurance claims data of patients diagnosed with hepatitis B as a columnar disease from the Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) from 2002 to 2015. The cost of hepatitis B was analyzed not only in direct costs but also, from a socio-economic perspective, in indirect costs incurred by society. This study found that the number of patients with viral hepatitis B increased from 213,758 in 2002 to 342,672 in 2015. The total costs increased from 141,000 million KRW in 2002 to 509,700 million KRW in 2015. This is mainly due to the increase in pharmaceutical costs. Outpatient prescription drug costs amounted to 244,800 million KRW in 2015, an increase of approximately 15 times from 16.5 million won in 2002. The healthcare costs for viral hepatitis B compared to the total medical costs of Korea accounted for 0.13% of the national health expenditure in 2002 and increased to 0.31% in 2015. In conclusion, the hepatitis B surface antigen positivity rate in Korea remains unchanged. However, the number of patients is increasing along with the socio-economic and healthcare burden. It is critical that steps be taken to reduce the costs of HBV infection by establishing effective management policies.
|
|
|
KEYWORD
|
|
|
hepatitis B, cost analysis, antiviral drugs, national health insurance
|
|
|
FullTexts / Linksout information
|
|
|
|
|
|
Listed journal information
|
|
|
|
|