Economic burden of cardiovascular diseases in Serbia

The total direct costs of cardiovascular disease in 2009 were Euro 400 million. The results showed that more than half a million working days were lost due to incapacity resulting from cardiovascular diseases, yielding the Euro 113.9 millon. The majority of total costs (Euro 514.3 million) were for: medication (29.94%), hospital days (28.97%) and hospital inpatient care--surgical and diagnostic interventions (17.84%). The results were robust to a change in 20% of volume or the unit price of all direct and indirect cost and to discount rate 2% and 10%. CONCLUSIONS; The total cardiovascular disease costs in 2009 represented approximately 1.8% of the Serbian gross domestic product. The results of the study would be valuable to health policy makers to bridge the gap between invested resources and needs, in order to improve cardiovascular disease outcomes.