Nutrition-related Diseases in the Medicines Reimbursement System of Latvia

Abstract

In Latvia, the medicine reimbursement system for outpatient treatment operates under conditions of limited resources, and the state budget financing has been reduced in recent years. Under such circumstances, a necessity to identify additional possibilities to optimise resources allocation to health care programmes and prevention activities is important. The aim of this research was to identify nutrition-related diagnoses in the Latvian medicine reimbursement system and to determine potential efficiency of the resource allocation to complementary nutrition programmes. To meet the aim defined, theoretical research methods (analysis of legislative documents and special literature analysis) were used alongside empirical research methods (data collection: documentary analysis, statistical database analysis). The results of this research showed that the largest amount of reimbursed diagnoses, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, digestive diseases, and osteoporosis, are identified as nutrition-related diagnoses in the review of special literature. Determination of t he efficiency of complementary nutrition programmes is a crucial issue in the context of the evidence-based medicine, both in terms of direct and indirect costs to society and government, and in terms of disability-adjusted life years and other health determinants directly related to patients. For this reason, possibilities for the evaluation of relative efficiency of the nutrition programmes for reimbursed diagnoses are investigated in depth.