A Study of cost analysis of treatment for arthritis

관절염 환자의 치료비용분석

This is a study through survey with the purpose of analysing of treatment cost for arthritis. Treatment cost can be devided Into two characteristics, one is the direct cost and the other is the indirect cost. Direct cost contains fees of medical treatment Including cost of self treatment & purchsing price of herb durg. On the other hand indirect cost means the using money of tansportation, lodging charge & labor-losing-time cost. For the succession of medical treatment of chronic diseases patients have to control themselves to go shopping around for the cure remeadies. And also it is important that the cost for unefficient or probably hamful folk remeadies should be reduced in order to distribute appropriatively the limited financial resources. As the result of this study, the fees for self treatment & herb drug are two times as much as those of regural medical treatment. Within the direct cost, there are the mean cost of regural medical treatment 59,630 won/mon., self-treatment 42,790 won/mon., and herb drug 78,380won/mon. therefore total mean direct cost is 180,800won per month. Moreover patients intermittently pay the cost of prostheses If folk remedies, these are added to the direct cost as above mentioned. Attributes of folk remedies are various from cure & analgesics to nutrients and their virtues as medicine are not clear in view of scientific knowledge. But 56% of arthritis patients have ever been experienced folk remedies. the cost for these remedies has wide ranges from 40,000 won to 1,000,000won. Total mean indirect cost including the transfortation fee, lodging charge & labor-losing-time cost has the range from 82,825won/month to 106,150won/month. Among these cost, labor-losing-time cost has a mojority because the waiting times are too long for seeing a doctor. In conclusion those patients having arthritis have a large burden against the treatment cost for continuous care. Therefore health professional should make effort to guide the patient to determine themselves informed choice about the treatment process.