Comparisons of hypertension-related costs from multinational clinical studies.

Background: This study identifies and compares the individual cost components of hospital and ambulatory services that manage the care of hypertensive patients in eight countries: the US, the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Canada and Australia.

Methods: Hypertension-related costs are classified according to four major cardiovascular events: (i) acute myocardial infarction; (ii) congestive heart failure; (iii) stroke; and (iv) renal failure, which was subdivided into renal failure treated by dialysis and renal failure treated by kidney transplantation. To make cross-country costs comparisons, we used the DRG codes used in the US and DRG-like codes from each country.