Economic Costs and Quality of Life for HFMD Patients in China

China's national survey of 3,491 laboratory-confirmed Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease patients from 2012-2013 assesses economic burden and health utility. The data includes 1136 mild outpatients, 1124 mild inpatients, 1170 severe cases, and 61 fatal cases. It quantifies direct medical costs, direct non-medical costs, indirect caregiving costs, and quality-adjusted life year (QALY) losses per episode.

Use Cases

• Estimate total economic costs segmented by patient severity categories (mild outpatient, mild inpatient, severe, fatal) for health policy analysis.
• Model the relationship between EV-A71 infection diagnosis and higher total cost or QALY loss for disease burden forecasting.
• Analyze how the duration of illness correlates with increased direct medical and non-medical costs for resource planning.
• Calculate mean QALY losses per HFMD episode using EuroQol EQ-5D-3L and EQ-VAS utility weights for cost-effectiveness studies of vaccination.

Strengths

• Data covers 3,491 HFMD patient cases from a national surveillance database across 31 provinces in China.
• Study provides specific mean total costs and QALY loss estimates with 95% confidence intervals for four distinct patient severity groups.
• Economic costs are broken down into three detailed categories: direct medical, direct non-medical, and indirect costs for caregiving.

Limitations

• Data is from 2012-2013 and may not reflect current economic conditions or healthcare costs.
• Sample includes only 61 fatal cases, which is a small subgroup for robust statistical analysis of that severity level.
• Data collection relied on caregiver recall via telephone survey, which may introduce reporting bias or inaccuracies.

Provenance

Source

Dryad, authored by Yaming Zheng.

Collection Method

Telephone survey of caregivers for laboratory-confirmed HFMD patients registered in China's national HFMD enhanced surveillance database.

Time Range

2012-2013

Freshness

Last updated 2020-06-24.

Geography

31 provinces across China.