Institutional costs in primary health care for smokers, Cienfuegos province, 2018

Abstract

Introduction: Tobacco is a major threat to global public health and is the leading cause of disability and premature death. To the cost in diseases terms and death is added the significant expenditure of health systems for the care of diseases arising from tobacco.

Objective: Characterize the institutional costs arising from health care for smokers in primary health care in Cienfuegos province during 2018.

Methods: Partial economic assessment study, costs description type; mixed approach. The information was processed with the SPSS version 15.0 program. The ethical principles established for this type of study were considered.

Results: The smoking population has the same characteristics as those of the health area under study, in terms of morbidity and mortality due to pulmonary emphysema, high blood pressure and diabetes mellitus. The Emergencies service was the most used service. Hypertensive crises rank first in observation room´s admission, bronchial asthma required the highest number of drug treatments, and the higher unit cost was the tobacco detoxification consultation.

Conclusions: There is a proven correspondence between a higher institutional cost in primary health care with health problems related to smoking, due to its relation to the onset of more common diseases, which can cause morbidity and mortality and high use of the Emergencies services.