Non-health-care costs associated with endometriosis

Abstract

Background: This study aims to quantify the non-health-care costs of endometriosis in a sample of Belgian patients over a 30-month period.

Methods: A longitudinal study enrolled patients who underwent surgical treatment for endometriosis in University Hospitals Leuven. Self-reported patient questionnaires measured costs at 1 month prior to surgical treatment and at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months following treatment. The number of days of work absence was valued using gross monthly income to estimate costs of productivity loss. Analysis included patient expenditure on support with household activities. The costs per patient over 6 months were obtained by linear extrapolation.

Results: Of 394 eligible patients, 180 participated in the study (response rate of 46%). The highest productivity loss was incurred during the 6 months preceding surgical treatment (€1514 ± 2576) and the 6 months following treatment (€2496 ± 4144). Mean costs dropped to €115-€225 during the following 6-month periods. Similarly, costs of support with household activities peaked during the 6 months preceding surgical treatment (€982 ± 908) and during the subsequent 6 months (€981 ± 1085), after which they dropped to €500-€675 during the following 6-month periods. Patients with severe endometriosis (Stage IV) (€4943) had higher total non-health-care costs over the 30-month period than patients with minimal-to-moderate endometriosis (Stages I-III) (€4510) (P = 0.048).

Conclusions: As our study did not include a control population of women without endometriosis, patients were asked to report non-health-care costs associated with endometriosis only. Results show that the highest non-health-care costs associated with endometriosis are incurred during the 6 months prior to and following surgical treatment.