Cost of Healthcare Services in Geriatric Neuro-oncology: A descriptive Analysis.

Background: The percentage of brain tumor incidence exceeds 50% in the geriatric population admitted at Khoula Hospital (a tertiary care hospital in Oman) as compared to the younger population, furthermore, geriatric patients impose a higher cost of healthcare in general. Therefore, geriatric tumor care is causing a significant burden on the healthcare service in Oman. For this reason, we have developed this study to identify the cost of care for this group.

Methods: Medical data with their costs were collected retrospectively for 108 patients diagnosed with a brain tumor above the age of 65 years and admitted at Khoula Hospital between 2016 and 2019.

Results: The two most common diagnoses in terms of incidence were Meningiomas (31.73%) and Glioblastomas (16.34%). Lymphoma peaked with regards to the cost, with an average cost of 8993.83 USD per diagnosis, followed by glioblastoma and then metastatic lesions (with 5039.18 and 4915.76 USD respectively). Of these surgeries, 82.61% were elective, most of which had a cost above or equal to the average. Emergency surgeries showed equal numbers above and below the average cost of surgeries (P< 0.05). The total costs of imaging were 73759.4 USD, with CT (35.8%) + MRI (32.9%) forming 68.7% of the total imaging costs. While laboratory investigation costs totaled 64110.93 USD.

Conclusion: The cost of tumor care in Oman is variable based on multiple factors. The reported results represent useful information forming the basis for further analysis such as cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, and cost-utility analysis.