Europace Advance Access published online on March 7, 2008
Europace, doi:10.1093/europace/eun048
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Costs of atrial fibrillation in five European countries: results from the Euro Heart Survey on atrial fibrillation
1 i3 Innovus, Vasagatan 38, 2tr, 111 20 Stockholm, Sweden; 2 Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Solna, Sweden; 3 Department of Cardiology, University Hospital Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands; 4 Centre for Health Economics, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm, Sweden; 5 Sanofi-Aventis, Bagneux, France; 6 ANMCO Research Center, Firenze, Italy; 7 Department of Cardiology, Hospital Universitario La Paz, Madrid, Spain; 8 Institute of Cardiology, Warsaw, Poland; 9 First Department of Cardiology, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens, Greece
Aims: To estimate costs of admission and costs incurred on an annual basis by patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) in Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the Netherlands.
Methods and results: The Euro Heart Survey on AF enrolled 5333 patients with AF in 35 European countries in 2003 and 2004. This was a bottom-up cost study conducted for the five largest contributors in terms of patients enrolled. Quantities of resource use during the enrolment admission and during 1-year follow-up were inferred from survey data and multiplied by national unit costs in order to estimate per patient costs associated with AF for each country. Mean costs of inpatient admission of an AF patient were estimated at 
1363, 5252, 2322, 6360, and 6445 and mean costs incurred on an annual basis at 1507, 3225, 1010, 2315, and 2328 in Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the Netherlands, respectively. Inpatient care and interventional procedures were identified as the main drivers of costs, accounting for more than 70% of total annual costs in all five countries.
Conclusion: Estimates of the economic burden posed by AF are critical in light of the increasing importance of AF as a public health problem.
Key Words: Atrial fibrillation, Cost, Economic, Burden, Resource use
* Corresponding author. Tel: +46 8 545 28 540; fax: +46 8 545 28 549. E-mail address: anna.r{at}healtheconomics.se
Manuscript submitted 8 October 2007. Accepted after revision 14 January 2008.
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