Hospital treatment costs for diseases attributable to environmental factors among the residents of Boa Vista and the increment of care to Venezuanian migrants

Abstract

Background

About 83.33% of diseases are related to environmental risk factors that act on the health-disease process and many are responsible for premature death.

Objective

The present study aimed to estimate the cost of diseases attributable to environmental factors in the city of Boa Vista, between 2008 and 2018, pointing out the increase resulting from the care of Venezuelan migrants.

Method

The causes of hospitalization were grouped based on the study of the Comparative Risk Analysis of the World Health Organization. The value was estimated using the gross costing method, which identifies the cost items at a high level of aggregation, encompassing some cost components more relevant to the service analyzed.

Results

The total cost of diseases was estimated at R$ 34,188,116.74, with acute respiratory syndromes (R $ 28,359,511.58), diarrheal diseases (R $ 3,484,947.53), and malaria (R $ 861,204.17) creating the most burdened to the public health system of Boa Vista in the historical series analyzed. As for the increase in expenses at the Boa Vista hospital units resulting from the assistance of migrants, the years of 2017 and 2018 represented 3.6% of the total costs.

Conclusion

The relationships between migration and health are complex and multifactorial and require efficient responses from professionals and managers of official health systems, especially when dealing with international migrations.

Keywords:
environmental health; human migration; health care costs