Abstract
The goal was to determine the private and indirect costs in a hospital based screening
programme for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in five local hospitals in Viborg County,
Denmark. As part of a prospective randomized screening program for AAA, all screened
65-year-old men in 1998 were asked to fill in a short questionnaire before leaving
the screening location. Data were collected upon work, travelling and time spent.
Total private costs were calculated and comparisons was made between the hospitals.
All 389 screened patients answered the questionnaire. Only 76 (20%) of the men were
still working, and 54 of them had been absent from work an average of 1.5 hours to
attend screening, however none of them had suffered pay loss. On average all patients
travelled 25 kilometers. The mean travel costs, excluding time spent driving, was
34 DKr per attender. 10% were accompanied to the hospital, but only 1% claimed it
was necessary.
The total mean time required for screening was 40 minutes, and the largest part of
this time was spent at travelling (35 minutes). The total private and indirect costs
including travelling and the estimated production loss were in average 76 DKr per
attender. No correlations were found between the extent of private costs and attendance
rates at the various screening locations. The private and indirect costs seem to be
high compared to the direct cost per scan, and should be considered in the final costs-effectiveness
analysis.
