Kidane, Asmerom W.; Hepelwa, Aloyce; Tingum, Ernest N.; Hu, Teh W.
Description:
The study presented here estimates the total health care cost attributable to smoking induced
cardiovascular disease in Tanzania. The study based on a survey conducted at a referral university
hospital in Dar es Salaam in 2014. Assuming a 2% prevalence rate of cardiovascular disease and a
population of 47.2 million, it was estimated that there are 943,800 cardiovascular patients in
Tanzania. The proportion of ever smokers among the surveyed patients was found to be 25 percent
yielding 240,400 patients who suffer from smoking induced cardiovascular diseases. Per capita
annual expenditure per patient is estimated to be 566.6 US dollars and total annual expenditure for
the country was estimated to be 136.1 million US dollars. On a per capita basis more direct and
indirect cost is incurred on males compared to females; more is spent on the elderly (40 or more
years) compared to the youth (less than 20 years). When compared with the mean annual
household income of the surveyed population, the smoking induced per capita expenditure
constitutes 35% of household income.