NUTRITION-RELATED DISEASES IN THE MEDICINES REIMBURSEMENT SYSTEM OF LATVIA

In latvia, the medicine reimbursement system for outpatient treatment operates under conditionsof limited resources, and the state budget financing has been reduced in recent years. undersuch circumstances, a necessity to identify additional possibilities to optimise resources allocationto health care programmes and prevention activities is important. the aim of this research was toidentify nutrition-related diagnoses in the latvian medicine reimbursement system and to determinepotential efficiency of the resource allocation to complementary nutrition programmes. tomeet the aim defined, theoretical research methods (analysis of legislative documents and specialliterature analysis) were used alongside empirical research methods (data collection: documentaryanalysis, statistical database analysis). the results of this research showed that thelargest amount of reimbursed diagnoses, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, digestivediseases, and osteoporosis, are identified as nutrition-related diagnoses in the review ofspecial literature. determination of the efficiency of complementary nutrition programmes is a crucialissue in the context of the evidence-based medicine, both in terms of direct and indirect coststo society and government, and in terms of disability-adjusted life years and other health determinantsdirectly related to patients. for this reason, possibilities for the evaluation of relative efficiencyof the nutrition programmes for reimbursed diagnoses are investigated in depth.