Expensive Stroke
The Burden of Ischemic Stroke report presented at the Canadian Stroke Congress in Quebec City has thrown up some interesting information. According to the study, a stroke is costlier than we assume. And it takes its toll is not just on the human body.
What makes this number thought provoking is that it is atleast double previous estimates and also that 20 percent of the amount hits families pay pockets and often leads to a severe financial crunch.
The study that was conducted in Canada, involved the study of 232 patients, their hospitalizations, medication costs, scanning costs, home care, doctors fees, and rehabilitation costs, change of lifestyle costs as well as loss of wages, disability leave and care giver salaries at 12 sites across the country.
The researchers, led by Dr Mike Sharma, director of the Ottawa Hospital’s regional stroke program and Dr. Nicole Mittmann of Sunnybrook Health Science Centre in Toronto also found that while a large chunk ( 80 percent) of the costs were incurred during the first six months of the stroke while the patient was still at the hospital, the remaining costs were borne by the family. These costs include loss of income, care giving, transportation etc starting seventh month onwards.
The costs were also directly proportionate to the level of disability. The personal tallies ranged from $2,000 for those who essentially had no disability to more than $200,000 for individuals who were quite severely disabled.
The average length of stay in hospital after a stroke varies widely. While Ontario had a less than 10 day hospital stay requirement it was considerably more in other places. The researchers pointed out that although 50,000 to 60,000 strokes are diagnosed each year about 10 times the number remain undiagnosed because of the absence of usual symptoms. These people however have long term problems such as dementia etc. The cause of a majority of stokes are blocked blood vessels while some(13 percent) are due to bleeding, Dr Sharma said.
The goal, he said was to invest in prevention and timely treatment to cut further costs. A healthy diet, regular exercise, maintaining normal blood pressure and reducing sodium intake would go a long was in reducing health care costs, Dr Sharma opined.
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