Abstract
Background
Heart failure (HF) imposes both direct costs to healthcare systems and indirect costs
to society through morbidity, unpaid care costs, premature mortality and lost productivity.
The global economic burden of HF is not known.
Methods
We estimated the overall cost of heart failure in 2012, in both direct and indirect
terms, across the globe. Existing country-specific heart failure costs analyses were
expressed as a proportion of gross domestic product and total healthcare spend. Using
World Bank data, these proportional values were used to interpolate the economic cost
of HF for countries of the world where no published data exists. Countries were categorized
according to their level of economic development to investigate global patterns of
spending.
Results
197 countries were included in the analysis, covering 98.7% of the world's population.
The overall economic cost of HF in 2012 was estimated at $108 billion per annum. Direct costs accounted for ~60% ($65 billion) and indirect costs accounted for ~40% ($43 billion) of the overall spend. Heart failure spending varied widely between high-income
and middle and low-income countries. High-income countries spend a greater proportion
on direct costs: a pattern reversed for middle and low-income countries.
Conclusions
Heart failure imposes a huge economic burden, estimated at $108 billion per annum. With an aging, rapidly expanding and industrializing global population
this value will continue to rise.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 06, 2014
Accepted:
December 14,
2013
Received:
September 2,
2013
Identification
Copyright
© 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
