İnönü Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Göğüs Hastalıkları AD, Malatya, Türkiye

Due to the increased rates of smoking in the world and in our country, prevalance of pulmonary problems and their related costs are rising. In this study, we aimed to investigate the hospitalization costs of the patients admitted to the pulmonary disease department. The study included 314 patients admitted to the department of pulmonary disease of Faculty of Medicine of İnönü University between 1 January-30 April 2005. The patients' ages, diagnosis, smoking habits and length of hospital stays were noted. The costs of hospitalization for all patients were calculated. The most frequent causes of hospitalizations were COPD (n:105), lung cancer (n:69), pneumonia (n:54) and asthma (n:32). Average costs of hospitalization were 1978 NTL for lung cancer, 1479 NTL for pneumonia, 1336 NTL for COPD and 925 NTL for asthma. While the major cost of medications and radiological investigations was lung cancer, the major cost of bed rates was pulmonary emboli and pneumonia. In total, the patients with COPD made the highest cost. In conclusion, the hospitalization costs of the disease caused by smoking, like COPD and lung cancer, were higher. To decrease the hospitalization costs and medical expenditures due to pulmonary diseases, the priority should be given to preventive medical studies, mainly the smoking cessation campaigns.