ArticlePharmacoEconomics2026
Health-Service Costs for the Treatment of Multidrug-Resistant/Rifampicin-Resistant Tuberculosis in South African Children: Application of a Real-World Dataset.
Article in PharmacoEconomics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Household costs and health-related quality of life of childhood multidrug-resistant TB in Western Cape, South Africa.IJTLD open · 2026Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundChildren with multidrug-resistant (MDR)/rifampicin-resistant (RR) tuberculosis (TB) are an important but neglected group in cost-effectiveness research. Digital health information systems enable new approaches to health-service cost analysis. The Provincial Health Data Centre (PHDC) in the Western Cape, South Africa, collates disparate health system data including hospital inpatient and outpatient data, medications, laboratory tests, and primary health care utilisation.
methodsA health-service cost analysis used anonymised, integrated PHDC data for children treated for MDR/RR-TB between 2018 and 2021. Health-service utilisation was costed using local unit prices, and total per-patient costs were summarised by key patient and disease characteristics (age, sex, resistance profile, site of disease, and HIV status) and reported in 2021 USD. A log-linear regression model identified cost drivers, and alternative parametric distributions were fitted to total costs to assess distributional fit.
resultsThere was significant total cost variation across the 271 children in the data sample (median US$7576; interquartile range 2725-22,986). Regression analysis indicates younger age, extrapulmonary disease site, living with HIV, and treatment duration had significant impact on costs; impact of resistance profile was significant but subject to modelling assumptions. The distribution of total per-patient costs fitted a gamma distribution (α = 0.93, β = 14,496).
conclusionTreatment for MDR/RR-TB in children remains costly for health systems. Utilising routinely collected, real-world data from an established health information system enables accurate and representative insights to overall costs and major cost drivers. Costs were highly skewed, with a small proportion of patients incurring very high costs. This cost analysis can assist in decision making and programme development at local and international levels and as an input to secondary analysis.
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