The costs of hepatitis A infections in South Korea

The incidence of hepatitis A infections among young adults has recently increased in South Korea. Although universal vaccination has often been suggested to mitigate the problem, its rationale has not been well-understood. Estimating the societal costs of hepatitis A infections might support the development of intervention strategies.

We classified hepatitis A infections into eight clinical pathways and estimated the number of occurrences and cost per case for each clinical pathway using claim data from National Health Insurance and several national surveys as well as assumptions based on previous studies. To determine the total costs of a hepatitis A infection, both direct and indirect costs were estimated. Indirect costs were estimated using the human-capital approach. All costs are adjusted to the year 2008.

There were 30,240 identified cases of hepatitis A infections in 2008 for a total cost of 80,873 million won (2.7 million won per case). Direct and indirect costs constituted 56.2% and 43.8% of the total costs, respectively. People aged 20-39 accounted for 71.3% of total cases and 74.6% of total costs. Medical costs per capita were the lowest in the 0-4 age group and highest in the 20-29 age group.

This study could provide evidence for development of cost-effective interventions to control hepatitis A infections. But the true costs including uncaptured and intangible costs of hepatitis A infections might be higher than our results indicate.