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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Health Economics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1433307
Direct economic burden of Acute Coronary Syndromes (ACS) in the Portuguese National Health Service -facts and trends between 2002 and 2022
Provisionally accepted
Francisco Madeira 1*
Carla Martins 1
Susana Viegas 1
Ana Teresa Timóteo 2,3
Maria Fatima Silva 4
Julian Perelman 1- 1 NOVA National School of Public Health, Public Health Research Centre, Comprehensive Health Research Center (CHRC), NOVA University Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
- 2 NOVA Medical School, Faculty of Medical Sciences of Lisbon, New University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
- 3 Hospital de Santa Marta, Lisbon, Portugal
- 4 Other, Coimbra, Portugal
Aim: We estimated the average direct cost per Acute Coronary Syndromes (ACS) in-patient episodes by diagnosis, namely ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), unstable angina (UA), and undetermined AMI (Acute Myocardial Infarction). We also analyzed the changes in direct costs over time between 2002 and 2022, and the total direct economic burden of ACS hospitalizations for the Portuguese National Health Service (NHS).Methods: We used the Portuguese Registry of Acute Coronary Syndromes (61,440 ACS hospitalizations), a cohort of people with ACS, recruited and followed from first hospitalization. A direct cost analysis was conducted. As resources, we considered health professional working hours, non-medical resources used during in-patient stays, laboratory and diagnostic tests, interventional cardiology procedures, pharmaceuticals, hospitalization-related complications, rehabilitation services, and death costs. A linear regressionmultivariate analysis was performed to identify the main cost determinants.
Keywords: Acute Coronary Syndrome, cost analysis, Economic burden of disease, Portugal, Acute myocadial infarction
Received: 15 May 2024; Accepted: 26 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Madeira, Martins, Viegas, Timóteo, Silva and Perelman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Francisco Madeira, NOVA National School of Public Health, Public Health Research Centre, Comprehensive Health Research Center (CHRC), NOVA University Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
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