The economic cost of a streptococcal tonsillitis episode

Abstract

Setting - Five primary health centres in the west of Sweden.

Participants - 101 consecutive patients treated for streptococcal tonsillitis.

Main outcome measure - the cost estimation included costs for physician visit and drug, travel costs to and from the primary health centre, cost of lost production resulting from the patient's or the guardian's absence from work for physician visit or sick-leave, and cost of telephone consultation with a physician or nurse.

Results - the period of illness was on average seven days, time to recovery after treatment five days, and the mean period of sick-leave 2.5 days. the total cost of a tonsillitis episode was about SEK 3 300 (385 USD). of this sum, the cost for the antibiotic accounted for only 3% and loss of production for 75%.

Conclusion - Differences in the cost of drugs only have a minor influence on the total cost, while factors causing loss of production, such as efficacy and side effects of the drug, have a greater influence. Economic evaluation of pharmaceuticals will be more relevant in the future, and in the search for the most effective treatment, cost effective studies will be integrated with clinical trials.

Objective - To estimate the cost of a streptococcal tonsillitis episode from the data of a questionnaire.

Key Words:

• beta-streptococci
• economic evaluation
• tonsillitis
• health economics