Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: Hypertension (HT) affects 23.9% of the Brazilian population, yet only 36.9% of these patients receive treatment, and 63% continue to have uncontrolled blood pressure despite treatment. This leads to serious complications and contributes to high costs for the healthcare system. The objective of this study was to map costs of HT complications in Brazil's private healthcare system, using secondary data.
METHODS: A narrative review was conducted to identify studies reporting costs of HT cardiovascular and renal complications in Brazil. The search was performed using Google Scholar and Medline via PubMed, with the following terms: ‘costs’, ‘stroke’, ‘heart failure’, ‘heart attack’, ‘end-stage renal disease’, ‘dialysis’, ‘Brazil’. Complications were searched individually, with no restrictions on date or language. For references published before 2024, cost adjustments based on Brazil's official inflation index (IPCA) were applied [initial IPCA value * (final month index / month prior to initial index)]. For studies reporting public healthcare costs, a conversion factor of 1.419 was used to estimate costs in private system. The conversion was based on two studies on stroke costs for both healthcare systems, conducted by the same research group and using the same methods.
RESULTS: The annual costs for HT cardiovascular and renal complications per person in Brazil’s private system, adjusted for 2024, are as follows: stroke R$167,087; heart failure R$31,613; myocardial infarction R$26,093; peritoneal dialysis R$120,806; hemodialysis R$95,625; dead donator renal transplant (1^st year) R$215,130; renal transplant (2+ years) R$21,871.
CONCLUSIONS: Hypertension constitutes a significant portion of healthcare spending, and its costs are expected to increase. Effective interventions for treating HT could play a crucial role in limiting this cost growth, significantly reducing the expenses associated with cardiovascular and renal complications.