Hospitalizing a child for influenza may cost closer to $13,000--not the $3,000 to $4,000 previously estimated, according to a study by researchers from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Published in the November issue of Pediatrics, the study found that children with low-risk conditions had hospital costs averaging $9,000 each, compared with those with high-risk conditions--such as heart disease, chronic lung disease, and asthma--whose costs averaged $15,000 each.
Previous studies, said the researchers, underestimated the true costs of influenza by including children with pneumonia and bronchitis, which are less expensive to treat. The highest-cost patients in the study were 18- to-21-year-olds and those who had particular high-risk chronic conditions, such as cardiac, metabolic, neurological, and neuromuscular diseases. The study concludes that annual influenza vaccinations for children are more cost effective than originally thought.
