TY - JOUR

T1 - Social/economic costs and health-related quality of life in patients with scleroderma in Europe

AU - BURQOL-RD Research Network

AU - López-Bastida, Julio

AU - Linertová, Renata

AU - Oliva-Moreno, Juan

AU - Serrano-Aguilar, Pedro

AU - Posada-de-la-Paz, Manuel

AU - Kanavos, Panos

AU - Taruscio, Domenica

AU - Schieppati, Arrigo

AU - Iskrov, Georgi

AU - Péntek, Márta

AU - Delgado, Claudia

AU - von der Schulenburg, Johann Mathias

AU - Persson, Ulf

AU - Chevreul, Karine

AU - Fattore, Giovanni

N1 - Funding Information: Supported by the Social/Economic Burden and Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Rare Diseases in Europe Project, which received funding from the European Union within the framework of the Health Programme [grant A101205]. The Executive Agency of the European Union is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.

PY - 2016/4

Y1 - 2016/4

N2 - Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the economic burden from a societal perspective and the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc; scleroderma) in Europe. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of patients with SSc (involving both localised and systemic sclerosis) from Germany, Italy, Spain, France, the UK, Hungary and Sweden. Data on demographic characteristics, healthcare resource utilisation, informal care, labour productivity losses and HRQOL were collected from the questionnaires completed by patients or their caregivers. HRQOL was measured with the EuroQol 5-domain (EQ-5D) questionnaire. Results: A total of 589 patients completed the questionnaire. The rate of patients with localised scleroderma, limited cutan and diffuse cutan SSc were 28, 68 and 4 %, respectively. Average annual costs varied from country to country and ranged from € 4607 to € 30,797 (reference year: 2012). Estimated direct healthcare costs ranged from € 1413 to € 17,300; direct non-healthcare costs ranged from € 1875 to € 4684 and labour productivity losses ranged from € 1701 to € 14,444. The mean EQ-5D index score for adult SSc patients varied from 0.49 to 0.75 and the mean EQ-5D visual analogue scale score was between 58.72 and 65.86. Conclusion: The main strengths of this study lie in our bottom-up approach to costing and our evaluation of SSs patients from a broad societal perspective. This type of analysis is very unusual in the international literature on rare diseases in comparison with other illnesses. We concluded that SSc patients incur considerable societal costs and experience substantial deterioration in HRQOL.

AB - Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the economic burden from a societal perspective and the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc; scleroderma) in Europe. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of patients with SSc (involving both localised and systemic sclerosis) from Germany, Italy, Spain, France, the UK, Hungary and Sweden. Data on demographic characteristics, healthcare resource utilisation, informal care, labour productivity losses and HRQOL were collected from the questionnaires completed by patients or their caregivers. HRQOL was measured with the EuroQol 5-domain (EQ-5D) questionnaire. Results: A total of 589 patients completed the questionnaire. The rate of patients with localised scleroderma, limited cutan and diffuse cutan SSc were 28, 68 and 4 %, respectively. Average annual costs varied from country to country and ranged from € 4607 to € 30,797 (reference year: 2012). Estimated direct healthcare costs ranged from € 1413 to € 17,300; direct non-healthcare costs ranged from € 1875 to € 4684 and labour productivity losses ranged from € 1701 to € 14,444. The mean EQ-5D index score for adult SSc patients varied from 0.49 to 0.75 and the mean EQ-5D visual analogue scale score was between 58.72 and 65.86. Conclusion: The main strengths of this study lie in our bottom-up approach to costing and our evaluation of SSs patients from a broad societal perspective. This type of analysis is very unusual in the international literature on rare diseases in comparison with other illnesses. We concluded that SSc patients incur considerable societal costs and experience substantial deterioration in HRQOL.

KW - Cost of illness

KW - Economic burden

KW - Health-related quality of life

KW - Localised scleroderma

KW - Scleroderma

KW - Systemic sclerosis

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84962007710&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10198-016-0789-y

DO - 10.1007/s10198-016-0789-y

M3 - Article

C2 - 27038626

AN - SCOPUS:84962007710

VL - 17

SP - 109

EP - 117

JO - European Journal of Health Economics

JF - European Journal of Health Economics

SN - 1618-7598

IS - 1

ER -