Social/economic costs and health-related quality of life in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis in Europe

authored by

BURQOL-RD Research Network , A. Kuhlmann, T. Schmidt, M. Treskova, J. López-Bastida, R. Linertová, J. Oliva-Moreno, P. Serrano-Aguilar, M. Posada-de-la-Paz, P. Kanavos, D. Taruscio, A. Schieppati, G. Iskrov, M. Péntek, C. Delgado, J. M. von der Schulenburg, U. Persson, K. Chevreul, G. Fattore

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the economic burden from a societal perspective and the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) in Europe. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of patients with JIA from Germany, Italy, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, and Sweden. Data on demographic characteristics, healthcare resource utilization, informal care, labor productivity losses, and HRQOL were collected from the questionnaires completed by patients or their caregivers. HRQOL was measured with the EuroQol 5-domain (EQ-5D-5L) questionnaire. Results: A total of 162 patients (67 Germany, 34 Sweden, 33 Italy, 23 United Kingdom, 4 France, and 1 Bulgaria) completed the questionnaire. Excluding Bulgarian results, due to small sample size, country-specific annual health care costs ranged from €18,913 to €36,396 (reference year: 2012). Estimated direct healthcare costs ranged from €11,068 to €22,138; direct non-healthcare costs ranged from €7837 to €14,155 and labor productivity losses ranged from €0 to €8715. Costs are also shown to differ between children and adults. The mean EQ-5D index score for JIA patients was estimated at between 0.44 and 0.88, and the mean EQ-5D visual analogue scale score was estimated at between 62 and 79. Conclusions: JIA patients incur considerable societal costs and experience substantial deterioration in HRQOL in some countries. Compared with previous studies, our results show a remarkable increase in annual healthcare costs for JIA patients. Reasons for the increase are the inclusion of non-professional caregiver costs, a wider use of biologics, and longer hospital stays.

Organisation(s)

Center for Health Economics Research Hannover (CHERH)

External Organisation(s)

Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
Red de Investigación en Servicios Sanitarios en Enfermedades Crónicas (REDISSEC)
Canary Islands Foundation for Health Research (FUNCANIS)
Canary Islands Health Service
London School of Economics and Political Science
Istituto Superiore di Sanita
Institute of Pharmacological Research Mario Negri IRCCS
Institute of Rare Diseases
Medical University of Plovdiv
Corvinus University of Budapest
Federación Española de Enfermedades Raras (FEDER)
The Swedish Institute for Health Economics
AP-HP Assistance Publique - Hopitaux de Paris
Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM)
Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi
Universite Paris 7
Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII)

Type

Article

Journal

European Journal of Health Economics

Volume

17

Pages

79-87

No. of pages

9

ISSN

1618-7598

Publication date

04.2016

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous), Health Policy

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-016-0786-1 (Access: Closed)