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Direct costs of inflammatory bowel diseases in a Finnish tertiary-level clinic
Rasmus Rankala1, Juuso Kosonen1, Kalle Mattila1,2
1Internal Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
Insights
Direct healthcare costs for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are substantial, particularly for Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) patients treated with biologics like infliximab.
Area of Science:
- Gastroenterology
- Health Economics
- Pharmacoeconomics
Background:
- Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), encompassing Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), presents a significant and ongoing economic burden.
- The advent of biologics has altered cost distributions over the last two decades, necessitating updated economic analyses.
- Recent data on direct healthcare costs for IBD in Finland are lacking, highlighting the need for current estimations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To estimate the direct healthcare costs associated with IBD, CD, and UC.
- To analyze the economic impact of biologic treatments, specifically infliximab, on IBD patient costs.
- To compare the direct healthcare costs between CD and UC patients.
Main Methods:
- Data were collected over one year from patients with IBD attending Turku University Hospital.
- The study included 2208 IBD patients (794 CD, 1414 UC) and a matched control group.
- Direct costs were meticulously gathered from hospital records for all participants.
Main Results:
- Annual direct healthcare costs averaged €4223 per IBD patient in a tertiary clinic.
- Infliximab treatment was associated with an additional €9157 in annual direct costs per patient.
- Crohn's disease patients incurred €1111 higher annual direct costs compared to ulcerative colitis patients.
Conclusions:
- Direct healthcare costs for IBD are substantial, approximately 17 times higher than control groups.
- Biologic therapies significantly increase the direct healthcare costs for IBD patients.
- Higher annual infliximab costs were observed in Crohn's disease patients compared to ulcerative colitis patients.
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.
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