Prevalence of moderate and high risk of aspiration in hospitalized patients and cost-effectiveness of a preventive protocol application

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of risk of aspiration and analysis of the cost effectiveness of the implementation of a preventive protocol. Methods: A cross-sectional study of hospital base with simple random sample, followed by statistical analysis of association and economic cost-effectiveness analysis using a decision tree. Results: It was found that the prevalence of risk of aspiration is high in general hospitals, with the magnitude of 56%, and that the implementation of preventive protocol with early evaluation of speech therapy is cost effective, with a gain of almost R$ 900.00 per hospitalization, as well as a reduction of 0.15 days of hospitalization also per patient, with incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of R$ 5,607.83 of economy. Conclusion: It is concluded that the adoption of preventive program with participation of speech therapy is highly cost-effective.