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Review
. 2022 Apr 28:14:293-307.
doi: 10.2147/CEOR.S338225. eCollection 2022.

Economic Burden of COVID-19: A Systematic Review

Fayolah Richards  1 , Petya Kodjamanova  2 , Xue Chen  3 , Nicole Li  4 , Petar Atanasov  5 , Liga Bennetts  6 , Brandon J Patterson  1 , Behin Yektashenas  1 , Marco Mesa-Frias  7 , Krzysztof Tronczynski  8 , Nasuh Buyukkaramikli  9 , Antoine C El Khoury  1
Affiliations
Review

Economic Burden of COVID-19: A Systematic Review

Fayolah Richards et al. Clinicoecon Outcomes Res. .

Abstract

Objective: To review and qualitatively synthesize the evidence related to the economic burden of COVID-19, including healthcare resource utilization and costs.

Methods: A systematic review of studies that assessed the economic burden [eg, direct costs, productivity, macroeconomic impact due to non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and equity] of COVID-19 was conducted by searches in EMBASE, MEDLINE, MEDLINE-IN-PROCESS, and The Cochrane Library, as well as manual searches of unpublished research for the period between January 2020 to February 2021. Single reviewer data extraction was confirmed independently by a second reviewer.

Results: The screening process resulted in a total of 27 studies: 25 individual publications, and 2 systematic literature reviews, of narrower scopes, that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The patients diagnosed with more severe COVID-19 were associated with higher costs. The main drivers for higher costs were consistent across countries and included ICU admission, in-hospital resource use such as mechanical ventilation, which lead to increase costs of $2082.65 ± 345.04 to $2990.76 ± 545.98. The most frequently reported indirect costs were due to productivity losses. On average, older COVID-19 patients incurred higher costs when compared to younger age groups. An estimation of a 20% COVID-19 infection rate based on a Monte Carlo simulation in the United States led to a total direct medical cost of $163.4 billion over the course of the pandemic.

Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a considerable economic burden on patients and the general population. Preventative measures such as NPIs only have partial success in lowering the economic costs of the pandemic. Implementing additional preventative measures such as large-scale vaccination is vital in reducing direct and indirect medical costs, decreased productivity, and GDP losses.

Keywords: costs; covid-19; economic Impact; health Economics; symptom Burden; vaccines.

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Conflict of interest statement

Fayolah Richards, Brandon J Patterson, Behin Yektashenas, and Antoine C El Khoury are employees of Janssen, Raritan, New Jersey USA. Marco Mesa Frias is an employee of Janssen Scientific Affairs LLC. Petya Kodjamanova, Xue Chen, Nicole Li, Petar Atanasov, and Liga Bennets are employees of HEMA, Amaris and report professional fees from Janssen for this study. Krzysztof Tronczynski is an employee of Janssen, Warsaw Poland. Nasuh Buyukkaramikli is an employee of Janssen, Beerse, Belgium. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA diagram.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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