economics of hospitalization and medication therapy for old covid-19 patients; an experience from a tertiary center in iran

Aims: there are controversies about the expenditures imposed on surveillance in the treatment of elderly patients and patients with end-stage disease. the present health economic evaluation study was performed to find the cost-effectiveness of hospitalization and antiviral treatment of covid-19 in elderly patients. instrument & methods: a health economic evaluation as a single-center primary study with a cross-sectional design was performed in firoozgar hospital, tehran, iran, in 2022. all the hospitalized cases of covid-19 at 65 years of age and more were eligible for the study. the health outcomes were the length of stay and death. cost-effectiveness was calculated using the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio. stata14 was used for data analysis.findings: of the admitted patients, 347 cases over 65 were selected for the study. 173 patients (49.86%) were in the age range of 65-74, 69 patients (31.41%) were in the age range of 75-84, and 65 patients (18.73%) were 85 and more. one hundred ninety-nine patients (57.35%) survived, and 148 patients (42.65%) died. the mean of los was 11.40±7.01 days, with the mean at the ward being 5.24±5.44 days and at the icu 6.15±6.94 days. the mean cost of a bed day was 35.41±32.03 dollars, with a right-skewed distribution.conclusion: a mean cost of 88.711$ is needed for the survival of one patient, assuming that all the icu-needed patients would die if there was a lack of hospital admission. considering all ward and icu admitted patients, 44.854$ is needed to save one old patient’s life, assuming this logic.