Financial burden of treating asthma in Dubai

Health officials now call for more awareness, a centralised electronic database and the establishment of special asthma centres to reduce this soaring cost.

DUBAI // The financial burden of treating asthma in Dubai could be as high as Dh130 million a year, experts say.

Hospital visits account for about 40 per cent of this figure – visits which are a burden and often unnecessary.

Health officials now have called for more awareness, a centralised electronic database in Dubai and the establishment of special asthma centres to tackle this soaring cost.

A study four years ago put the figure at Dh88 million, said Dr Bassam Mahboub, who heads the Rashid Hospital respiratory and pulmonary unit, but now it is much higher.

The figures are also high in Western countries but the way money is spent is more efficient, he said.

“What is different between our standing on asthma compared to the western countries is we spend a lot of money for people who spend a lot of time in the hospital,” said Dr Mahboub.

At least 14 per cent of residents in the emirate have been diagnosed with the condition.

There needs to be a “global strategy in the UAE to reduce the impact [of asthma] in many ways – lifestyle, quality of life, cost, and morbidity and mortality”, said Dr Pierre Majdalani, specialist in paediatric pulmonology at Dr Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Centre.

Far fewer asthmatic patients seek emergency treatment in Europe in comparison, said Dr Majdalani.

“It means the patients are not well-controlled on their medication and they are not following their treatment or they are not diagnosed correctly,” he said.

“It’s definitely increased the burden on the health system because the emergency room and emergency department are made for casualties and these people in 2014 shouldn’t be coming to the emergency room because they didn’t take their medication,” said Dr Mahboub

Dubai’s health insurance scheme, which went into effect in February and will be rolled out until 2016, could help stem the burden, he added.

“Most of these people are not within our insurance health system,” he said, referring to those who use emergency rooms for conditions such as asthma.

“They are most likely not insured.”

That means hospital and emergency visits could fall in comparison with consultations, as more people are insured.

“But we do have to stress upon the compliance with the medication,” said Dr Mahboub.

A centralised electronic medical database could also help, he said.

Abu Dhabi introduced an emirate-wide system last year but Dubai has yet to follow suit.

Both doctors have called for increased awareness about the condition. “Once we increase this kind of awareness, I think we will have more control of asthmatics,” said Dr Mahboub.

Patients also should take their medication, even on days when they feel well – not just when they feel they need it, he added.

“The problem with this disease is that you have good days and bad days.”

Another way to stem the cost could be to set up asthma centres, as has been done for other diseases such as diabetes, said Dr Majdalani. “When you take good control of asthma in general, you reduce the cost by far – you might reduce the rate of visitations, [emergency room] visits and the rate of doctor visits in the clinic,” he said.

Misdiagnosis can could also be inflating the cost, said Dr Majdalani. Some doctors over-prescribe medication.

“There is a lack of education [among] doctors and patients,” he said.

Dr Mahboub said doctors are also carrying out a similar study in Abu Dhabi to investigate the financial burden of asthma.

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory respiratory disease whose symptoms include tightness of the chest, shortness of breath and coughing.

About 235 million people worldwide suffer from it, according to the World Health Organisation.

Inhaled substances and particles that can provoke allergic reactions or irritate the airways form the strongest risk factors for the condition.