Pedatrik hastalarda akut tonsillo-farenjitin ekonomik maliyeti: Türkiye, Sakarya'da medikal bir merkezin ilaç tedavi kayitlari ile gerçekleştirilen retrospektif çalişma

Purpose: Cost is one of the important factors when selecting an antibiotic for the treatment of acute tonsillo-pharyngitis. The main aim of the study is to describe medical and non-medical costs of acute tonsillo-pharyngitis in pediatrics and to find out the antibiotic treatment which has low cost.Materials & Method: This retrospective study was conducted with 130 pediatric patients who had acute tonsillo-pharyngitis and their parents. Data were obtained from Mediko Social Center at Sakarya University. To describe non-medical cost parameters, telephone surveys were done with mothers or fathers of children. Medical costs (cost of antibiotic therapy, other prescribed drugs, throat cuture, other non-prescribed medicines and other hospital visits) were calculated for the time of first visit and 2012 and they were evaluated in terms of government (payer) perspective and patient perspective. In addition, nominal values and real values were calculated for comparison of costs. Consumer price index (CPI) and different price indexes were used to calculate real values.Results and Discussion: 96 responders were completed telephone survey and six questions were answered. According to the antibiotic cost calculations, the highest nominal and real mean costs were belong to the amoxicillin/clavunate combination. Amoxicillin has the lowest real mean cost for both previous years and 2012 in terms of patient and government perspective. The highest nominal and real cost in 2012 belong to the physical examination within total medical cost parameters. The medical costs were reduced from previous years to 2012 and the real values of this decline was higher than nominal values. This study is one of the first to collect and evaluate data on the medical and nonmedical costs of acute tonsillo-pharyngitis in children, in Turkey. Results indicated that amoxicillin may be first choice for therapy in terms of cost and the real decline in drug costs are much more than nominal values. Consequently, the Turkish Ministry of Health not only reduced drug costs, but also medical costs which directly affect budget have been reduced in recent years because financial restraints on the health bugdet have increased.Conclusion: Further pharmacoeconomic studies should be conducted for the evaluation of economic burden of disease. In this way, antibiotic guidelines can be developed, unnecessary usage of medications can be prevented and expensive antibiotic prescriptions can be reduced.Key words: Medical cost, Acute tonsillo-pharyngitis, group A -hemolytic streptococci (GABHS), antibiotic and pediatric.