The burden of unscheduled health care for XXXX in Latin America.

@entity1 @entity565
OBJECTIVES: To determine the level and cost of unscheduled health care resource use in adults and @entity1 across all @entity565 symptom severities in Latin America. METHODS: The level and cost of health care resource use were analysed for 2074 @entity1 with @entity565 included in the Asthma Insights and Reality in Latin America (AIRLA) survey from 10 Latin American countries. Health care resource use was multiplied by country-specific unit costs to estimate average per- @entity1 annual costs. @entity1 were classified as adults (> or = 16 years) or @entity1 (<16 years), with disease severity categorized using a symptom severity index. RESULTS: Persistent @entity565 symptoms were experienced by 53.1% of @entity1 (50.1% of @entity1 and 54.6% of adults). In the year preceding the survey, 57.1% of @entity1 required unscheduled health care resource use and 45.1% reported at least 1 emergency hospital contact. The percentage of @entity1 reporting unscheduled health care resource use was greatest amongst those with severe persistent symptoms (71.9%) but it was also high in those with mild intermittent symptoms (45.7%). An average of 73.2% of annual costs of @entity565 -related health care for the 10 countries was due to unscheduled health care. Expenditure on unscheduled care was greatest amongst both adults and @entity1 with severe persistent @entity565 symptoms (US  558 and US  769, respectively). Adults and @entity1 with mild intermittent symptoms also incurred considerable unscheduled costs (US  204 and US  215, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Poorly controlled @entity565 imposes a considerable cost burden driven by unscheduled health care resource use in Latin America. Treatments to control @entity565 and reduce the need for unscheduled health care could reduce this cost in both adults and @entity1 .
