• Mehdi Touat, Marion Opatowski, Christian Brun-Buisson, Kristel Cosker, Didier Guillemot, Jerome Salomon, Philippe Tuppin, Gregoire de Lagasnerie, and Laurence Watier.
• Biostatistics, Biomathematics, Pharmacoepidemiology and Infectious Diseases (B2PHI), Inserm, UVSQ, Institut Pasteur, Paris-Saclay University, 2, avenue de la Source de la Bièvre, 78180, Montigny-Le-Bretonneux, France.
• Appl Health Econ Health Policy. 2019 Jun 1; 17 (3): 381-389.

Background And ObjectiveAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become one of the biggest threats to global public health given its association with mortality, morbidity and cost of health care. However, little is known on the economic burden of hospitalization attributable to AMR from a public health insurance perspective. We assessed the excess costs to the French public health insurance system attributable to AMR infections in hospitals.MethodsBacterial infectious disease-related hospitalizations were extracted from the National health data information system for all stays occurring in 2015. Bacterial infections, strains, and microbial resistance were identified by specific French ICD-10 codes. Information about health care expenditure, co-morbidities and demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, age) are provided. We used a matched case-control approach to determine the excess of reimbursements paid to stays with AMR compared to stays with an infection without resistance. Cases and controls were matched on gender, age, Charlson comorbidity index, category of infection, infection as principal diagnosis (two classes), microorganism and hospital status. The overall AMR cost was extrapolated to stays with AMR and excluded from the sample (multiple infections), and a second extrapolation was performed to consider stays with unknown resistance status.ResultsThe final sample included 52,921 matched-pairs (98.2% cases). Our results suggest that AMR overall cost reached EUR109.3 million in France with a mean of EUR1103 per stay; extrapolation to the entire database shows that the overall cost could potentially reach EUR287.1 million if all cases would be identified. The mean excess length of hospital stay attributable to AMR was estimated at 1.6 days.ConclusionAMR causes substantial cost burden in France for the public health insurance. Our study confirms the need to reinforce programs to prevent AMR infection and thereby reduce their economic burden.

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