Prevalence of dyslipidemia in Chinese adults is increasing rapidly. Dyslipidemia is one of the most important risk factors for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), which represents a serious disease burden to the country. However, there is no published research on the costs of Chinese patients diagnosed with AMI combining dyslipidemia. This study aimed to report key findings of the disease burden in China, including direct medical costs and direct non-medical costs.

Six hospitals from different geographic areas were selected in China for data collection. Patients who were hospitalized due to AMI combining dyslipidemia from January 1 2016 to December 31 2016 in the six sites were enrolled. Direct medical costs including inpatient and outpatient costs were extracted through electronic medical records; medical costs occurred in other healthcare institutions and direct non-medical costs were collected by a face-to-face questionnaire survey. Results were analyzed with descriptive statistics.

Data of 900 patients were analyzed. There were more males (78.40%) than females. The mean age was 62.1 (SD: 11.5). The times of inpatient and outpatient per year were 0.57 and 8.67, respectively. Medium direct medical costs and medium direct non-medical costs were 31,440 RMB (Interquartile range (IQR): 21,533–48,202) (4,443 USD: 3043–6812) and 665 RMB (IQR: 351–1328) (94 USD: 50–188), respectively; while corresponding medium indirect costs per year were 659 RMB (IQR: 226–1579) (93 USD: 32–223).

This is the first study comprehensively analyzing the disease burden of patients diagnosed with AMI combining dyslipidemia in China. The results suggested that the medical cost of this population is still high. Hospitalization cost accounted for 81 percent of the total cost, which was around 1.3 times of the annual per capita disposable income over the same period. Therefore, the importance of providing effective clinical management as well as dyslipidemia prevention and control intervention should be highlighted, especially for middle-aged and elderly males with dyslipidemia.