The burden of the current curative expenditure of injury in Dalian, China-A study based on “System of Health Accounts 2011”

Abstract

Background Injury is one of the major public health problems, which causes more than 5 million deaths in the world every year. Cases of specific types of injury put a tremendous threat to human health and also add a heavy medical burden on individuals and societies. This study was to calculate and analyze the current curative expenditure (CCE) of injury in Dalian and consequently to provide control strategies for decision-makers. Main text: A total of 565 medical institutions were selected with multistage stratified cluster random sampling, containing 4,375,351 valid samples. Subsequently, the distribution of injury CCE in different dimensions (including age and site of injury) was analyzed under the framework of System of Health Accounts 2011(SHA 2011) using the established database. There were increases from 32.36/100,000 in 2006 to 37.34/100,000 in 2017 and from 46.12/100,000 in 2006 to 54.48/100,000 in 2017 in urban and rural residents respectively. The study found that the CCE of injury in Dalian had reached 1572.73 million RMB, accounting for 7.45% of the total curative care expenditure. In the 15–25 age group, the cost of injury accounts for a larger proportion of CCE than other age groups. Among the injuries in different regions of the body, injuries to the spine, lower limb, head and foreign body entering cost the most. Conclusions Dalian has a relatively serious burden of injury costs. The essential and primary goal is to reduce the cost and increase the benefit of attending to patients with injuries. Specific control strategies should be tilted toward the age group 15–25. Injuries to the spine, lower limb, head and foreign body entering also should be priorities of interventions.