Introduction:

The elderly constitute the largest relative and absolute consumers of health services and medicines in any country, hence the importance of their study from Health Economics.

Objective:

To estimate the cost of institutionalized patients according to dependency in the Cumanayagua nursing home in 2018.

Methods:

A cross-sectional descriptive observational study was carried out. Partial economic evaluation was performed with description of cost from the institutional perspective.

Results:

Men between 70 and 79 years of age predominated, with 2 to 3 years in the institution, with a predominance of elderly with some type of dependency in the elderly. The item that had the greatest impact on costs was salary and increased according to dependency levels.

Conclusions:

The total costs incurred by the institution and by degree of dependency of the elderly constitute a basic element for evaluating its economic efficiency and promoting the more rational use of resources, helps to increase the efficient processes in the institution, to the detriment of those that are not, which increases the net health benefit for the elderly. The increase in cost is closely linked to the level of dependency of the elderly, reflecting the importance of maintaining the elderly in a good state of health, so that in addition to having a better quality of life, this does not increase costs for the sector.

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