Background: If new advances in stroke management are to be put into practice, crucial information about their costs needs to be considered in relation to clinically pertinent variables (e.g. handicap level and stroke subtypes). Details of costs throughout the entire period of stroke care are essential in the political decision-making process, in order to avoid other budget-balancing approaches, which are not always satisfactory. Our aim was to perform an in-depth evaluation of the direct medical cost of stroke care in a large cohort. Methods: We included 435 consecutive patients with brain infarction in 12 primary-care and referral neurology departments. Information on acute care was prospectively collected. Information on postacute care was collected by research nurses’ visits to the patient’s or a relative’s home 18–40 months after the stroke onset. We thus collected detailed information on handicap levels, stroke subtypes, acute hospitalization costs, rehabilitation, nursing care and ambulatory costs. This enabled us to calculate costs over an 18-month period after the initial acute hospital discharge. Results: By the 12th month after discharge, the costs amounted to 17,799 euros (16,440–19,158) per patient; the initial hospitalization accounted for 42% of this cost, rehabilitation for 29% and ambulatory care for 8%. These costs were mostly concentrated within the first 3- to 6-month period. After 46 months without recurrence, the cost of ambulatory care outweighed the cost of the first 6 months. Handicap levels explained 43% of the variance of costs (p < 0.0001) and, according to the Rankin scale divided into 3 classes (0–2, 3 and 4–5), cumulative costs over time differed considerably. Stroke subtypes were not discriminating variables except for lacunar strokes, which were significantly less costly than the other groups. Conclusions: By providing a fairly comprehensive figure for the details of direct costs of stroke care over time, our study gives some clues about the economic burden of stroke care which is mostly driven by a high handicap level. This suggests that any early intervention aimed at reducing the handicap level will probably dramatically reduce this burden.
Background: In France, the socioeconomic aspects of stroke have never been addressed. Such analyses are essential for health authorities to justify the establishment of new stroke units when resources are low, provided it can be shown that stroke units are effective in reducing both the morbidity and mortality of stroke. Only 6 dedicated stroke services exist for 60 million inhabitants in France. Our aim was to study acute and postacute pathways and to determine the factors that influence destination after discharge, handicap evolution and costs. Methods: In a cohort of 494 consecutive patients with brain infarction, we collected information on medical and socioeconomic variables, handicap and its evolution using the modified Rankin scale and Mini-Mental Status score at the 10th day, 6th month and 18th–40th month. These data were recorded during the initial hospital stay, at the follow-up clinic visit and in a home interview done 18–40 months after discharge by research nurses. We used multiple logistic regression for analyses. Results: The most important factor for not returning home was having a Rankin score greater than 3 with an odds ratio of 41.7 (95% confidence interval 19.2–90.0; p = 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that when the Rankin score was 0, 1 or 2, the main factors for not returning home were socioeconomic variables and serious medical disorders. When the Rankin score was 4 or 5, the main reason for not being sent for rehabilitation was medical status. After adjustment for the Rankin score, patients who returned home or were transferred to rehabilitation were quite similar regarding socioeconomic and medical variables. Other patients transferred to a geriatric ward, nursing home or new housing were more frequently living alone, 60 years of age or older, had less than 2 children, low level of education, dementia or cancer. Overall, the mean cost was 19,513 Euros over an 18-month period and was mainly driven by the level of the Rankin score (e.g. 10,530 vs. 34,809 Euros for Rankin scores of 0–1 and 4–5, respectively). Conclusion: These data showed that not only handicap level but also socioeconomic variables are important in determining the destination of stroke patients after discharge. They may help health authorities to make decisions to establish new approaches to treat stroke. This study can also serve as a basis for future cost-effectiveness studies of new drugs being evaluated in therapeutic trials or of new management strategies of stroke patients.
When assessing the cost-effectiveness of the secondary prevention of stroke, it is not well known whether the cost of a recurrent brain infarction (BI) is different from a first-ever BI. In a cohort of 435 consecutive prevalent cases of BI (including both recurrent and first-ever BI) we collected medical and socio-economic variables. Handicap was measured with the Rankin scale. Only the direct medical costs were considered over an 18-month period from a societal perspective. We compared first-ever to recurrent BI. Of the 435 patients 20.5% had a recurrent BI. The length of the initial hospitalization and the distribution of the patients into the three classes of handicap (Rankin 0-2, 3, and 4-5) were similar in the first-ever and recurrent BI groups. The average total cost of a first-ever BI was euro 19 725 (95% CI, 17 950-21 501) and euro 18 560 (95% CI, 15 798-21 322) for a recurrent BI (P = 0.48). There were no differences between the two groups when the costs were compared by handicap levels (P = 0.17) or when the costs were compared for each type of expenditure (initial hospitalization, rehabilitation, ambulatory services) except for long-term care, because of the small number of cases. This study suggests that the costs of recurrent BI are roughly similar to the costs of first-ever BI, which may be helpful when studying the cost-effectiveness of secondary stroke prevention trials.
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