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. 2020 Aug;52(4):655-668.
doi: 10.1111/apt.15889. Epub 2020 Jul 3.

Healthcare use, work loss and total costs in incident and prevalent Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis: results from a nationwide study in Sweden

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Healthcare use, work loss and total costs in incident and prevalent Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis: results from a nationwide study in Sweden

Hamed Khalili et al. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Background: There are limited data on population-wide assessment of cost in Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC).

Aim: To estimate the societal cost of actively treated CD and UC in Sweden.

Methods: We identified 10 117 prevalent CD and 19 762 prevalent UC patients, aged ≥18 years on 1 January 2014 and 4028 adult incident CD cases and 8659 adult incident UC cases (2010-2013) from Swedish Patient Register. Each case was matched to five population comparators. Healthcare costs were calculated from medications, outpatient visits, hospitalisations and surgery. Cost of productivity losses was derived from disability pension and sick leave.

Results: The mean annual societal costs per working-age patient (18-64 years) with CD and UC were $22 813 (vs $7533 per comparator) and $14 136 (vs $7351 per comparator), respectively. In patients aged ≥65 years, the mean annual costs of CD and UC were $9726 and $8072 vs $3875 and $4016 per comparator, respectively. The majority of cost for both CD (56%) and UC (59%) patients originated from productivity losses. Higher societal cost of working-age CD patients as compared to UC patients was related to greater utilisation of anti-TNF (22.2% vs 7.4%) and increased annual disability pension (44 days vs 25 days). Among incident CD and UC patients, the mean total cost over the first year per patient was over three times higher than comparators.

Conclusion: In Sweden, the societal cost of incident and prevalent CD and UC patients was consistently two to three times higher than the general population.

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Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Flow chart of eligible patients
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Annual mean cost of prevalent patients with CD and UC compared to general population comparators in working age and older adults
Fgure 3:
Fgure 3:
Monthly mean cost in relation to time of diagnosis in incident patients and in general population comparator
Figure 4:
Figure 4:
Cost distribution in prevalent and incident patients and their comparators

Comment in

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