Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Costs and disability among stroke patients

Kavanagh, Shane M., Knapp, Martin R J., Patel, Anita (1999) Costs and disability among stroke patients. Journal of Public Health Medicine, 21 (4). pp. 385-394. ISSN 0957-4832. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:16881)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.

Abstract

Background The high costs of health and social care support for stroke survivors, and the development of new service arrangements, have concentrated growing attention on economic issues. However, there are few data on costs and their association with levels of disability. Methods Secondary analyses of data from the OPCS (Office of Population Censuses and Surveys) Surveys of Disability conducted in the mid-1980s were used to examine service utilization and costs for more than 1000 people who have had a stroke. Costs were estimated for all health and social care services. Regression analyses examined the cost-disability association in the context of other covariates for people living in private households. Results Disability problems were common among stroke survivors, particularly in relation to locomotion, self-care and holding. Among people living alone, the major contributors to costs were in-patient care (pound 27 per week) and home help (pound 30 per week). Among people living with others, in-patient hospital care was also a major cost (pound 28 per week). Other services costing more than pound 5 per week were general practitioner consultations, hospital out-patient care and day centre attendances. Resource use patterns varied considerably. Costs were associated with severity of disability, time since stroke and whether the person was living alone. Looking at the overall balance of care, a greater proportion of stroke survivors with severe disability were resident in communal establishments. Conclusion The analyses provide a baseline from which more recent local studies and evaluations can be compared. Key issues for economic studies of stroke are the inclusion of a broad range of services, a reasonable duration of follow-up and consideration of the impact of the substitution of informal for formal services.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled keywords: stroke; disability surveys; service use; costs; economics
Subjects: R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: I.T. Ekpo
Date Deposited: 24 Jun 2009 07:35 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:54 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/16881 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Kavanagh, Shane M..

Creator's ORCID:
CReDIT Contributor Roles:
  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.