การประเมินค่าใช้จ่ายของผู้ป่วยเอดส์ตามแบบแผนการรักษา

บทคัดย่อ

Estimating the Costs of AIDS Patients Following Treatment Patterns This research study was aimed to examine the patterns of AIDS treatment and to evaluate the direct and indirect costs of AIDS treatment and care. The subjects were 70 persons diagnosed with AIDS within the period of one month before the in-depth interview and had CD4 between 50-300 cells/uL. The subjects were recruited when they had their doctor appointment at Nakorn-pathom Hospital. Both patients and families were interviewed and home visit was made for those who agree to participate in the study. Percentage and mean were calculated for quantitative data. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis.

The results indicated that almost all AIDS patients contacted HIV through hetero-sexual contact and had two major patterns of treatment: 1) seeking AIDS treatment at the appointed clinic when having complication symptoms; and 2) seeking AIDS treatment at the appointed clinic when having complication symptoms and utilizing Thai traditional medicine simultaneously. Factors influencing their treatment pattern included the experience of previous treatment received, the cure of complication symptoms, and the role of family members. The average of direct and indirect costs of outpatientws treatment and care (both within and outside the system) were 4,648 Baht per person per visit, and 579.38 Baht per person per visit respectively. The cost of outpatientws treatment and care was considerably high. It was even higher if the cost of inpatientws treatment and care was included. The number will be higher when consider the cost of losing workforce. Such high cost of AIDS treatment and care lead to the tremondous economic loss for the nation. It is suggested that the cost of AIDS treatment and care should be taken into consideration when planning for HIV/AIDS prevention and care campaign in the future.