Costing juvenile idiopathic arthritis: examining patient-based costs during the first year after diagnosis

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Rheumatology
• Health Economics
• Clinical Research

Background:

• Limited data exist on the treatment costs for pediatric inflammatory arthritis, specifically juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).
• Understanding these costs is crucial for healthcare planning and economic impact assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine patient-based costs for treating children with JIA in the UK during the first year post-diagnosis.
• To analyze costs from a secondary healthcare payer perspective.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the ongoing Childhood Arthritis Prospective Study (CAPS) involving children newly diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis (
• Collected health service resource use data at diagnosis, 6 months, and 1 year.
• Applied reference unit costs to calculate the first-year treatment cost per child.

Main Results:

• A total of 297 children completed the 12-month follow-up.
• The mean annual total cost per child was £1649 (SD £1093, range £401-£6967).
• Appointments with pediatric rheumatologists represented the highest cost component; costs were highest for enthesitis-related, systemic JIA, or extended oligoarthritis subtypes.

Conclusions:

• Children with JIA consume substantial and highly variable health service resources in the first year post-diagnosis.
• Individual patient costs are essential for accurate cost recoupment and economic impact assessments of interventions.