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Quantifying the hospital and emergency department costs for women diagnosed with breast cancer in Queensland

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Abstract

Purpose

With increasing rates of cancer survival due to advances in screening and treatment options, the costs of breast cancer diagnoses are attracting interest. However, limited research has explored the costs to the Australian healthcare system associated with breast cancer. We aimed to describe the cost to hospital funders for hospital episodes and emergency department (ED) presentations for Queensland women with breast cancer, and whether costs varied by demographic characteristics.

Methods

We used a linked administrative dataset, CancerCostMod, limited to all breast cancer diagnoses aged 18 years or over in Queensland between July 2011 and June 2015 (n = 13,285). Each record was linked to Queensland Health Admitted Patient Data Collection and Emergency Department Information Systems records between July 2011 and June 2018. The cost of hospital episodes and ED presentations were determined, with mean costs per patient modelled using generalised linear models with a gamma distribution and log link function.

Results

The total cost to the Queensland healthcare system from hospital episodes for female breast cancer was AUD$309 million and AUD$12.6 million for ED presentations during the first 3 years following diagnosis. High levels of costs and service use were identified in the first 6 months following diagnosis. Some significant differences in cost of hospital and ED episodes were identified based on demographic characteristics, with Indigenous women and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds having higher costs.

Conclusion

Hospitalisation costs for breast cancer in Queensland exert a high burden on the healthcare system. Costs are higher for women during the first 6 months from diagnosis and for Indigenous women, as well as those with underlying comorbidities and lower socioeconomic position.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets used during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy constraints associated with our ethics approval that explicitly prohibits the sharing of data. The corresponding author had full access to all the data and the final responsibility to submit for publication.

Code availability

The coding used during the current study is not publicly available due to privacy constraints associated with our ethics approval that explicitly prohibits the sharing of code.

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Funding

NB received a stipend for general living costs, supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

    Daniel Lindsay & Abbey Diaz

  2. College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia

    Nicole Bates & Kerrianne Watt

  3. School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Emily Callander

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  1. Daniel Lindsay
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  2. Nicole Bates
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  5. Emily Callander
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Contributions

DL undertook the data analysis, as well as being the main author to all sections of the paper except the methods. NB and EC conceived, designed, and planned the study, as well as being the main author of the Methods. All authors contributed to the interpretation of the data, drafting and revising the manuscript, and approved of the final draft.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel Lindsay.

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Disclaimer

The funder had no role in this study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of this article.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Human Research Ethics approval was obtained from the Townsville Hospital and Health Service Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) (HREC/16/QTHS/11), Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) HREC (EO2017/1/343), and James Cook University HREC (H6678). Permission to waive consent was approved from Queensland Health under the Public Health Act 2005. No identifiable information was provided to the authors.

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Not applicable.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Lindsay, D., Bates, N., Diaz, A. et al. Quantifying the hospital and emergency department costs for women diagnosed with breast cancer in Queensland. Support Care Cancer 30, 2141–2150 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06570-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06570-6

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