Article Text
Abstract
Background Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are chronic diseases associated with a high and continuous economic burden. The introduction of biologics has changed the distribution of costs over the past two decades, and there are no recent studies on direct costs in Finland. This study aimed to estimate the direct healthcare costs of these diseases in a tertiary-level clinic.
Methods The data were collected during a 1-year period of patients with IBD visiting Turku University Hospital. Patients were included if they lived in the hospital district area and were over 18 years old. This comprised an IBD group of 2208 patients, including 794 cases of CD and 1414 cases of UC. A sex-matched and age-matched control group was collected for comparison. Direct costs were collected during a 1-year study period from the hospital records.
Results Total direct costs per patient with IBD in a tertiary-level clinic were €4223 annually. IBD-generated direct costs were estimated to total €3981 per patient annually. Patients with IBD who were given infliximab had €9157 higher direct healthcare costs per patient annually than patients with IBD with no infliximab medication. Direct healthcare costs generated in a tertiary-level gastroenterological clinic averaged €1652 per patient with IBD annually. On average, patients with CD had €1111 higher direct healthcare costs annually than patients with UC.
Conclusions The direct healthcare costs of IBD were significant, almost 17-fold higher compared with a control group. Patients with IBD administered with biologics had significantly higher costs. Patients with CD had higher annual infliximab costs than patients with UC.
- IBD
- crohn's disease
- ulcerative colitis
Data availability statement
Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information. Data relevant to the study are included in the article. Raw data may be obtained from Kliininen tietopalvelu, atp(at)tyks.fi.
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Data availability statement
Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information. Data relevant to the study are included in the article. Raw data may be obtained from Kliininen tietopalvelu, atp(at)tyks.fi.
Footnotes
RR and JK contributed equally.
Contributors Conception and design: RR, JK, AM, KM, MV and RT. Acquisition of data: RR, JK, AM and KM. Analysis and interpretation of data: RR, JK, AM and KM. Drafting of the manuscript: RR and JK. Critical revision: AM, KM, MV and RT. Final approval: RR, JK, AM, KM, MV and RT.
Funding This study was supported by grants from the Hospital District of Southwest Finland.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.