Costs of Healthcare for Children with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) in Poland

The last two decades have seen an increase in the incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in many regions of the world, which has had a significant impact on both the social and economic burden of governments and healthcare systems. The aim of this study was to determine the level of hospitalization and outpatient treatment costs for children and adolescents with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, depending on age, location, and activity of the disease. Methods were a retrospective analysis of the medical documentation of 240 children with IBD, hospitalized in the Gastroenterology Ward, Department of Pediatrics Medical University of Silesia (Katowice, Poland), along the three years follow up. The costs of treatment consisted of calculations of the supply of oral and intravenous drugs, calculations of the costs of laboratory tests, imaging, and consultations, as well as person-day costs. The most important results, determined with high costs of IBD treatment, are associated with younger age, high disease activity, localization in the small intestine in Crohn's disease (CD), and inflammatory changes in the entire colon in Ulcerative Colitis (UC). During the observation, it was noticed that the shortening of the hospitalization time did not significantly affect the total costs, which remained at a stable level.