OBJECTIVES:

Lung cancer is a disease with high incidence(733.3 thousand, 2015) and mortality(610.2 thousand, 2015) while bring tremendous economic burden to patients in China. In current study, lack of research on medical resources distribution and annual medical cost in disease development process based on panel data. Cost of managing patients with lung cancer and the trend of medical cost are worth to explore.

To demonstrate the trend of annual medical cost and cost allocation of lung cancer from first diagnosis to the end of database basing on Qingdao medical institutions panel data from 2012 to 2015.

METHODS:

Totally 150 lung cancer patients who alive four years and all medical records were got in database. Annual medial cost and cost allocation of 1-4 year after diagnosis were calculated.

RESULTS:

Total medical cost for four years are RMB 78914, RMB 52612, RMB 70383 and RMB 47280 which the cost of 1^st year after diagnosis was higher than consequent years. Total cost decrease significantly in second year after diagnosis, at 3^th year the cost bounced and dropped at 4^th year . The top three of total medical cost are drugs, test and treatment, which account for average 69%, 13% and 8%, respectively. Drug cost has similar trend with total medical cost. Test cost decrease relatively slowly in second year after diagnosis, at 3^th year the cost bounced to the maximum and dropped at 4^th year . Treatment cost keep stable in first two years and increased 68% at 3^th year and decreased markedly at 4th year.

CONCLUSIONS:

The economic burden of lung cancer is extremely high compare with per capita disposable income of RMB 35680 in Qingdao. The biggest portion of medical cost is related to drug used during the overall treatment period.