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Published on: June 2, 2014
Total health insurance costs in children with a migraine diagnosis compared to a control group
Viola Obermeier1, Monika Murawski2,3, Florian Heinen4
1Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Institute for Social Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Munich, Germany.
Insights
Migraine in 6 to 11-year-old German children incurs significant healthcare costs, exceeding those of healthy peers. Comorbidities, particularly mental health conditions, substantially contribute to these expenses.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health Economics
- Neurology
- Public Health
Background:
- Migraine poses a significant economic burden in healthcare.
- While adult migraine costs are documented, pediatric migraine costs remain understudied.
- This study focuses on the economic impact of migraine in young children in Germany.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the direct and indirect healthcare costs associated with migraine in 6 to 11-year-old children in Germany.
- To compare healthcare expenditures between children with and without a migraine diagnosis.
- To identify factors contributing to excess healthcare costs in pediatric migraine patients.
Main Methods:
- Utilized claims data from a large German health insurer (BARMER) for the year 2017.
- Compared annual healthcare costs of 2,597 children diagnosed with migraine against 306,926 controls without headache diagnoses (2013-2017).
- Employed generalized linear regression (Gamma regression) to model cost associations, adjusting for sex, age, and comorbidities.
Main Results:
- Children with migraine incurred substantially higher annual per capita healthcare costs (€1018) compared to controls (€618).
- Direct migraine-related excess costs were €115 per child.
- Comorbidities, especially mental and behavioral disorders (€105), accounted for the majority of the €400 excess costs in the migraine group.
Conclusions:
- Pediatric migraine diagnoses in 6 to 11-year-olds generate significant direct and comorbidity-related excess costs within the German healthcare system.
- Comorbidities play a crucial role in the overall economic burden of migraine in children.
- Further research into managing comorbidities may reduce healthcare expenditures associated with pediatric migraine.
Background:
Health care costs of migraine constitute a major issue in health economics. Several publications analyzed health care costs for adult migraine patients, based on questionnaires or secondary (health insurance) data. Although migraine often starts already in primary school age, data on migraine related costs in children is scarce. In this paper we aimed to assess the migraine-related health care costs in 6 to 11 year old children in Germany.
Methods:
Using claims data of a large German health insurer (BARMER), overall annual health care costs of 6 to 11 year old children with a diagnosis of migraine in 2017 (n = 2597) were compared to a control group of 6 to 11 year old children without a headache diagnosis between 2013 and 2017 (n = 306,926). The association of migraine and costs was modeled by generalized linear regression (Gamma regression) with adjustment for sex, age and comorbidities.
Results:
Children with migraine caused considerably higher annual per capita health care costs than children without a headache diagnosis (migraine group: € 1018, control group: € 618). Excess costs directly related to migraine amounted to € 115. The remaining excess costs were related to comorbidities, which were more frequent in the migraine group. Mental and behavioural disorders constituted the most expensive comorbidity, accounting for € 105 of the € 400 annual excess costs in the migraine group.
Conclusion:
6 to 11 year old children with a migraine diagnosis cause significant direct and comorbidity related excess costs in the German health care system.
