Background: Aphasia is associated with increased hospital stays and use of rehabilitation services. Little is known about the hospitalisation costs for patients with aphasia in Australia.

Aim: To compare the costs of hospitalisation for patients with and without aphasia.

Methods: Data on patients admitted with stroke/TIA to Queensland hospitals (n = 22) participating in the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry were linked to administrative datasets. The International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision codes were used to identify patients with aphasia (R470). These codes were selected from emergency department presentations and hospital admissions for linked cases using a 5-year look back period. Clinical costing data were obtained from Queensland Health and were inflated to a 2013/2014 financial year equivalent using the Total Health Price Index. The additional cost associated with aphasia was assessed using median regression analysis, with clustering by hospital.

Results: There were 1043/4195 (26.5%) patients recorded as having aphasia (49% female; 78 median age; 83% ischaemic stroke). Greater overall costs per person were observed for medical (median cost $2273 vs. $1727, p < 0.05), nursing ($3829 vs. $2748, p < 0.05), non-clinical ($765 vs. $601, p < 0.05), and allied health ($1138 vs. $720, p < 0.05) activities. After adjustment for confounding factors, patients with aphasia had $2882 greater total costs of admission on average than patients without aphasia (95% confidence interval $1880 to $3884).

Conclusion: Greater costs were associated with hospitalisation for patients with aphasia after stroke. This has implications for the economic burden of healthcare provision for patients with post-stroke aphasia in Australia.