COMPARISION OF COSTS OF SECONDARY PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF STROKE – COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS

Abstract

Cerebrovascular accident (CVA) is a serious complication of untreated arterial hypertension. Introduction: The aim of this paper is to compare the cost of secondary prevention and treatment of CVA caused by untreated arterial hypertension. Methods: Cost-effectiveness analysis of diagnosis and therapy of arterial hypertension in comparison with CVA treatment. Results: The cost of secondary prevention of CVA per patient per year in 2006. was 1.589,19 kunas, which comes to 15.107,75 kunas in thirty years of treatment (discount factor included), whereas a single CVA treatment was 17.207,54 kunas on average. In every 850 treatments of hypertension (NNT) comes a prevented CVA which is 1.350.811,5 kunas, and is therefore more expensive than a single CVA treatment. Conclusion: Secondary prevention has a long-term protective effect improving the patients’ quality of life, inhibiting the potential post-CVA handicap and pre-retirement. Thus, the main advantage of both primary and secondary prevention is in their greater benefit for patients.