Spending profile on hospitalizations for Alzheimer’s disease in the state of São Paulo: quantitative analysis of the last 10 years.

Introduction: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by slow and progressive loss of cognition, which affects mostly elderly people, its prevalence and disabling outcome promote a strong financial impact. Objectives: To present the profile of expenses with hospitalizations by the AD in São Paulo (SP), between 2011 and 2020, through the morbidity list of the CID10-G30, correlating with the character of care, average length of stay, values of professional and hospital services and average value for hospitalizations. Design and setting: This is an ecological, descriptive, retrospective and quantitative study. Methods: Data were collected in the Hospital Information System of the Unified Health System (SIH-SUS). Results: In SP, between 2011 and 2020, there were 4126 admissions for AD, with a predominance of emergency care (74.5%). Spending for hospitalizations was approximately R $ 7.5 million, hospital services accounted for approximately 91.3% of total costs, while professional services accounted for 8.7%. Elective services had an average stay of 61.7 days and corresponded to 63.1% of total expenses, urgent services had an average stay of 12 days and 36.9% of total expenses. The average value per hospitalization was R $ 1,824.92. Conclusions: More than R $ 7.5 million has been spent on AD in the last decade in SP. Elective care had an average stay five times longer and with the costs for hospital services accounted for most of these expenses.