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Economic Burden of Vision Loss and Eye Disorders in Iran

BACKGROUND: Globally, population growth and ageing are expected to increase the risk of vision impairment for more people. Eye disorders impose heavy social and economic burdens on communities through increased poverty, reduced quality of life, and decreased employment. We aimed to calculate the eco...

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Autores principales: Rezapour, Aziz, Adel, Amin, Aboutorabi, Ali, Askarzade, Elahe, Barghazan, Saeed Husseini, Pourtaleb, Arefeh, Tabatabaee, Seyed Saeed
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10612550/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37899914
http://dx.doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v52i10.13859
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author Rezapour, Aziz
Adel, Amin
Aboutorabi, Ali
Askarzade, Elahe
Barghazan, Saeed Husseini
Pourtaleb, Arefeh
Tabatabaee, Seyed Saeed
author_facet Rezapour, Aziz
Adel, Amin
Aboutorabi, Ali
Askarzade, Elahe
Barghazan, Saeed Husseini
Pourtaleb, Arefeh
Tabatabaee, Seyed Saeed
author_sort Rezapour, Aziz
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Globally, population growth and ageing are expected to increase the risk of vision impairment for more people. Eye disorders impose heavy social and economic burdens on communities through increased poverty, reduced quality of life, and decreased employment. We aimed to calculate the economic burden of eye diseases in Iran. METHODS: Prevalence-based and top-down cost estimation methods were used with a sociological approach. Data were collected from the Northeastern Ophthalmology Center Institute for Health Assessment, and Evaluation, besides the 2017 census. Eye diseases were classified according to the ICD10. Data were analyzed using Excel 2016 software. RESULTS: Survey data were collected from 19,113 patients with vision loss and eye disorders. The average cost of vision loss/eye disorders was estimated to be $250.3. The findings indicated that the economic burden of visual diseases was $2,844 million a year, with direct medical costs comprising 87% (66% of inpatient and 21% of outpatient) and direct non-medical and indirect costs estimated at 6% and 7%, respectively. Furthermore, 72.8% of direct medical costs was paid by insurance companies, 20.6% by patients, and 6.6% by the government. CONCLUSION: Eye diseases and vision loss in Iran, as in other countries, are costly for the health system and society. Instituting effective policies and measures to address this rising burden should be a national priority. Another suggestion in this area would be to focus on preventive care and policies such as health education, highlighting the role of reorientation of health services and advocacy (for policies that promote eye health), where relevant.
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spelling pubmed-106125502023-10-29 Economic Burden of Vision Loss and Eye Disorders in Iran Rezapour, Aziz Adel, Amin Aboutorabi, Ali Askarzade, Elahe Barghazan, Saeed Husseini Pourtaleb, Arefeh Tabatabaee, Seyed Saeed Iran J Public Health Original Article BACKGROUND: Globally, population growth and ageing are expected to increase the risk of vision impairment for more people. Eye disorders impose heavy social and economic burdens on communities through increased poverty, reduced quality of life, and decreased employment. We aimed to calculate the economic burden of eye diseases in Iran. METHODS: Prevalence-based and top-down cost estimation methods were used with a sociological approach. Data were collected from the Northeastern Ophthalmology Center Institute for Health Assessment, and Evaluation, besides the 2017 census. Eye diseases were classified according to the ICD10. Data were analyzed using Excel 2016 software. RESULTS: Survey data were collected from 19,113 patients with vision loss and eye disorders. The average cost of vision loss/eye disorders was estimated to be $250.3. The findings indicated that the economic burden of visual diseases was $2,844 million a year, with direct medical costs comprising 87% (66% of inpatient and 21% of outpatient) and direct non-medical and indirect costs estimated at 6% and 7%, respectively. Furthermore, 72.8% of direct medical costs was paid by insurance companies, 20.6% by patients, and 6.6% by the government. CONCLUSION: Eye diseases and vision loss in Iran, as in other countries, are costly for the health system and society. Instituting effective policies and measures to address this rising burden should be a national priority. Another suggestion in this area would be to focus on preventive care and policies such as health education, highlighting the role of reorientation of health services and advocacy (for policies that promote eye health), where relevant. Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2023-10 /pmc/articles/PMC10612550/ /pubmed/37899914 http://dx.doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v52i10.13859 Text en Copyright © 2023 Rezapour et al. Published by Tehran University of Medical Sciences. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted, provided the original work is properly cited
spellingShingle Original Article
Rezapour, Aziz
Adel, Amin
Aboutorabi, Ali
Askarzade, Elahe
Barghazan, Saeed Husseini
Pourtaleb, Arefeh
Tabatabaee, Seyed Saeed
Economic Burden of Vision Loss and Eye Disorders in Iran
title Economic Burden of Vision Loss and Eye Disorders in Iran
title_full Economic Burden of Vision Loss and Eye Disorders in Iran
title_fullStr Economic Burden of Vision Loss and Eye Disorders in Iran
title_full_unstemmed Economic Burden of Vision Loss and Eye Disorders in Iran
title_short Economic Burden of Vision Loss and Eye Disorders in Iran
title_sort economic burden of vision loss and eye disorders in iran
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10612550/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37899914
http://dx.doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v52i10.13859
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