Medical expenses of patients with Favism admitted to 17th Shahrivar Hospital compared to G6PD enzyme screening cost, in north of Iran

BACKGROUND: Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) enzyme deficiency is one of the prevalent disorders in Guilan province, northern Iran, causing many patients to suffer from acute hemolysis. This disease has imposed tremendous costs both on patients and Health systems. The aim of this study was to compare the direct costs of favism treatment on patients and health system with G6PD enzyme screening test. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this descriptive prospective study, the medical and hospital costs of acute hemolysis due to G6PD deficiency were calculated and compared with the expenses of screening newly born infants for this disorder in Rasht. Data was collected by a questionnaire.Student’s t-Test and chi-squared test were recruited and data was analyzed using SPSS ver. 20. RESULTS: In this study, 101 hospitalized patients with favism (72 male and 29 female) admitted from October 2011 to the end of September 2012 were included. The average cost of treatment for these patients was approximately 726000000Rials (for each patient 7190000 Rials), which was about half of the cost of screening for all newborn infants in Rasht during this period. CONCLUSION: The cost of G6PD enzyme screening in Rasht is substantially lower than the cost of treating hospitalized patients with Favism.