How does comorbidity affect cost of health care in patients with irritable bowel syndrome? A cohort study in general practice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is associated with other disorders (comorbidity), reduced quality of life and increased use of health resources. We aimed to explore the impact of comorbidity on cost of health care in patients with IBS in general practice.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this cohort study 208 consecutive patients with IBS (Rome II) were recruited. Sociodemographic data, IBS symptoms, and comorbidity (somatic symptoms, organic diseases and psychiatric disorders) were assessed at baseline. Based on a follow up interview after 6-9 months and use of medical records, IBS and non-IBS related health resource use were measured as consultations, hospitalisations, use of medications and alternative health care products and sick leave days. Costs were calculated by national tariffs and reported in Norwegian Kroner (NOK, 1 EURO equals 8 NOK). Multivariate analyses were performed to identify predictors of costs.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 164 patients (mean age 52 years, 69% female, median duration of IBS 17 years) were available at follow up, 143 patients (88%) had consulted their GP of whom 31 (19%) had consulted for IBS. Mean number of sick- leave days for IBS and comorbidity were 1.7 and 16.3 respectively (p < 0.01), costs related to IBS and comorbidity were 954 NOK and 14854 NOK respectively (p < 0.001). Age, organic diseases and somatic symptoms, but not IBS severity, were significant predictors for total costs.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Costs for health resource use among patients with IBS in general practice were largely explained by comorbidity, which generated ten times the costs for IBS.</p

International Variation in Resource Utilisation and Treatment Costs for Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Literature Review

Recent years have witnessed substantial progress in understanding the cost implications of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). To assess the divergent methodologies and their impact on the resulting cost analyses in RA, we conducted a systematic literature review to summarise the scientific evidence of RA-induced costs. Sixty-five reviews, models or cost analyses on the burden of illness and general costs associated with RA were identified. They covered the US, Canada, Sweden, the UK, The Netherlands, Germany and Finland. Twenty-four cost analyses provided appropriate data about direct and/or indirect costs. Each study was summarised separately. Costs were discounted to 2003 and converted to US dollars. The costs per RA-year ranged from $US1503 to$US16_514. However, each study has to be interpreted individually, with consideration given to the study population, indication, age of the study, database used, type of therapy, setting, level of cost differentiation and data derivation. Health technology assessment reports offer sufficient space to adequately describe the composite parts and restrictive elements of different methodological approaches and analyses.Cost-analysis, Rheumatoid-arthritis

Costs of Irritable Bowel Syndrome in the UK and US

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common functional gastrointestinal disorders, with an estimated prevalence rate in the general population of 10-15% in industrialised countries. Although IBS is not a life-threatening disease, it contributes significantly to a large segment of healthcare resource consumption. This review provides an overview of studies addressing the direct and indirect costs of IBS in the US and the UK. A systematic literature search was conducted in MEDLINE and the Cochrane library; additionally, all reference lists covering the years from 1960 to May 2004 were scanned. Twenty-four publications for the US and the UK, published between 1991 and 2003, were identified: 6 were excluded, 18 were included. Data for the UK, US and UK + US were reported in 5, 11 and 2 publications, respectively. Total direct cost estimates per patient per year ranged from $US348 to$US8750 (calculated for year 2002). The average number of days off work per year because of IBS was between 8.5 and 21.6; indirect costs ranged from $US355 to$US3344. The total costs and cost components of IBS are influenced by several factors: features of the investigated patient group (age, limitation to healthcare seekers or all IBS patients, comorbidity, severity of symptoms), database used, method of data collection (retrospective or prospective, varying cost components, time-point of data collection in relation to index-date of IBS diagnosis, method of cost calculation [incidence or prevalence based]) and different healthcare systems in the US and the UK. These factors led to the incomparability of published data, thus no comprehensive picture can be drawn of the total costs related to IBS in the UK and US. Data underline the magnitude of the economic impact of IBS in the UK and US, which is increased by a factor of 1.1-6.0, compared with matched non-IBS control groups. IBS contributes both direct and indirect costs to the total healthcare bill. Further studies should take influencial factors into account and report related data carefully in order to provide useful and comparable published cost data. Additionally, further research on the cost effectiveness of diagnostic procedures and therapies in IBS is required to define strategies to help IBS patients improve their quality of life and reduce related costs.Cost-of-illness, Irritable-bowel-syndrome