Aim: To examine healthcare utilisation and the direct financial costs in providing medical care to a population of children aged 5-15 years with respiratory complaints. Secondarily, to assess whether these costs depended upon having specific asthma diagnosis or not.
Method: A postal respiratory questionnaire was sent to the parents or guardians of all children registered with two general practices. A search of the general practice medical records over a 2-year reference period was made for a stratified random sample and results are presented for 488 children aged 5-15 years.
Results: The cost of primary care lower respiratory tract consultations in children with 4-5 symptoms/risk factors was pounds sterling 17.02 per patient per year for those with a previous diagnosis of asthma compared with pounds sterling 6.08 per patient per year for those with the same number of symptoms but no diagnosis (t = -4.446, P<0.001). The cost of primary care lower respiratory consultations in those with no GP diagnosis of asthma and no symptoms/risk factors was pounds sterling 2.25 per patient per year.
Conclusions: Studies, which fail to include the costs associated with treating children with respiratory symptoms but without a formal diagnosis, will seriously underestimate the costs of treating asthmatic children.