J Korean Ophthalmol Soc.  2019 Aug;60(8):765-772. 10.3341/jkos.2019.60.8.765.

Socioeconomic Costs of Age-related Macular Degeneration in Korea

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea. donghyunjee@catholic.ac.kr
  • 2Suncheon Public Health Center, Suncheon, Korea.

Abstract

PURPOSE
To estimate the annual socioeconomic costs of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in the Republic of Korea.
METHODS
We estimated the costs of illness to society of AMD patients, including medical, nonmedical, and productivity costs. The medical costs included official and nonofficial medical costs, and the nonmedical costs consisted of transportation, time, and nursing costs. We used Korea National Health Insurance Claims Database, National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort, and Korea Health Panel study data in the analysis.
RESULTS
The socioeconomic costs of AMD were estimated to be 694 billion Korean won (KRW) in 2016. This figure was divided into 501 billion KRW (72.1%) for medical costs, 61 billion KRW (8.8%) for nonmedical costs, and 133 billion KRW (19.1%) for productivity costs. The annual per capita socioeconomic cost of AMD was 1.32 million KRW.
CONCLUSIONS
We determined the scale and composition of the socioeconomic costs of AMD. Importantly, the productivity costs accounted for approximately 20% of all costs, suggesting that AMD had a significant impact on productivity. Because the disease costs of AMD are expected to increase continuously with the aging population, effective planning at the governmental level for prevention and treatment of AMD should be considered to reduce socioeconomic costs.

Keyword

Age-related macular degeneration; Costs; Disease costs; Socioeconomic costs

MeSH Terms

Aging
Cohort Studies
Cost of Illness
Efficiency
Humans
Korea*
Macular Degeneration*
National Health Programs
Nursing
Republic of Korea
Transportation

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