Cost of care in Iranian hemophilic patients

Lifetime treatment of persons with hemophilia entails a heavy financial burden. Themain goal of this study was to determine the factors influencing care cost of hemophilia A insouthern Iran. The present study comprised 88 of 170 hemophilia A patients who had been registeredand virtually treated in Fars Hemophilia Treatment Center in southern Iran. The data concerningpatients’ characteristics and medication schedules were collected from their past medical recordsand staff interviews. The scale utilized by the Hemophilia Utilization Group Study (HUGS) was usedto assess the status of patients’ functional health. The severe, moderate and mild deficiencies of factor VIII were found in 43.2%, 21.6%and 35.2% of 88 patients respectively. The mean age in the study group was 21.8 years (±12.2)and 58 (65.9%) enjoyed high health status. In regard to laboratory records, 25 (28.4%) patientswere HCV-positive, 2 (2.3%) HBS-positive and all were HIV negative. The average cost of care fora patient with Hemophilia A was $8,510 (±8,066) and the total annual costs were significantly (p<0.05) associated with: severity of arthropathy, presence of factor VIII inhibitor and its titer, severityof factor VIII deficiency, positive HCV infection and functional health status. Costs unrelated toforegoing factors included only 1% of the total. The total cost of patient care was correlated with severity of factor deficiency, arthropathy,positive HCV infection and functional health status. Financial resources to meet factorunrelatedcosts should increase, in order to provide patients with improved quality of medical care.