Comparison of direct and indirect costs of internal fixation and cast treatment in acute scaphoid fractures: A randomized trial involving 52 patients

Figures & data

Diagram showing the flow of patients through each stage of the randomized trial according to the CONSORT statement (http://www.consort-statement.org).

Table 1.  Swedish socioeconomic classification

Socioeconomic group	Code	Delineation	Aggregated groups
Unskilled and semiskilled workers	11–21	Less than 2 years of post-comprehensive school education	Manual workers
Skilled workers	21–22	2 years or more of post-comprehensive school education	Manual workers
Assistant non-manual employees	33–36	Range: less than 2 years to 2 but not 3 years of post-comprehensive school education	Non-manual employees/self-employed
Intermediate-level non-manual employees	44–46	3 but not 6 years of post-comprehensive school education	Non-manual employees/self-employed
Employed and self-employed professionals, higher-level civil servants and executives	54–60	At least 6 years of post-comprehensive school education	Non-manual employees/self-employed
Self-employed (other than professionals)	76–87	Small/large-scale entrepreneurs Small/medium-scale farmers	Non-manual employees/self-employed

Reports on Statistical Coordination 1982:4, Statistics Sweden.

Table 2.  Unit costs (€) of various parts of medical treatment, 1992–1997

Year	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997
Inpatient costs
Cost per day	294	294	348	364	374	389
Surgery, cost per min	10.4	10.4	10.9	11.5	11.7	13.5
Anesthesia time, cost per min	1.9	1.9	2.1	2.2	2.3	2.3
Outpatient costs
Outpatient visit (including radiographs)	96	96	101	107	110	118
Surgery, cost per procedure < 20 min	307	255	268	282	290	313
Surgery, cost per procedure < 20 min	307	543	570	601	617	666

1 €= 9.2 SEK (September 2005).

Table 3.  Cost assessment (based on treatment)

	All patients		Manual workers (n = 25)		Non-manual employees/self-employed (n = 27)
Treatment	Closed	Surgical	Closed	Surgical	Closed	Surgical
Number	26	26	13	12	13	14
Outpatient visits
median	6	5
95% CI ^a	5–6	4–6
Time absent from work (days)
median	74	39	100	61 ^b	0	19
95% CI ^a	0–100	21–59	60–139	46–84	0–96	1–42
Hospital costs (€)
median	688	1,649 ^c	642	1,934 ^d	717	1,295 ^c
95% CI ^a	553 –717	1,268–2,099	463 –837	1,290–2,309	448 –770	1,158–3,288
Work disability costs (€)
median	1,913	777	3,022	2,705	0	453
95% CI ^a	0 – 3,044	336–1,893	1,034–5,840	645–3,527	0– 2,148	0–875
Total costs (€)
Median	2,507	3,155	3,485	4,529	770	2,253 ^e
95% CI ^a	810–3,739	2,018–4,663	1,547–6,419	2,458–5,836	682–2,842	1,158–4,163

^aNon-parametric confidence interval; ^bp = 0.03 vs. cast group; ^cp < 0.001 vs. cast group; ^dp = 0.001 vs. cast group; ^ep = 0.047 vs. Cast group. All p-values 2-tailed.

Table 4.  Cost assessment based on occupation (both treatment groups). Values are median (95% non-parametric confidence interval)

	Manual workers (n = 25)	Non-manual employees/self-employed (n = 27)
No. of outpatient visits	5 (4–6)	6 (5–6)
Time absent from work (days)	84 (59–100)	16 (0–42) ^a
Hospital costs (€)	1,285 (682–1,933)	1,070 (717–1,268)
Work disability costs (€)	2,847 (1,782–3,706)	99 (0–875) ^a
Total costs (€)	4,396 (2,458–5,460)	1,240 (810–2,842) ^a

^a p < 0.001 vs. manual workers.