Cost-of-illness in psoriasis: comparing inpatient and outpatient therapy.
PLoS One
; 8(10): e78152, 2013.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-24194911
ABSTRACT
Treatment modalities of chronic plaque psoriasis have dramatically changed over the past ten years with a still continuing shift from inpatient to outpatient treatment. This development is mainly caused by outpatient availability of highly efficient and relatively well-tolerated systemic treatments, in particular BioLogicals. In addition, inpatient treatment is time- and cost-intense, conflicting with the actual burst of health expenses and with patient preferences. Nevertheless, inpatient treatment with dithranol and UV light still is a major mainstay of psoriasis treatment in Germany. The current study aims at comparing the total costs of inpatient treatment and outpatient follow-up to mere outpatient therapy with different modalities (topical treatment, phototherapy, classic systemic therapy or BioLogicals) over a period of 12 months. To this end, a retrospective cost-of-illness study was conducted on 120 patients treated at the University Medical Centre Mannheim between 2005 and 2006. Inpatient therapy caused significantly higher direct medical, indirect and total annual costs than outpatient treatment (13,042 versus 2,984 ). Its strong influence on cost levels was confirmed by regression analysis, with total costs rising by 104.3% in case of inpatient treatment. Patients receiving BioLogicals produced the overall highest costs, whereas outpatient treatment with classic systemic antipsoriatic medications was less cost-intense than other alternatives.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Psoriasis
/
Hospital Costs
/
Ambulatory Care
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Health_economic_evaluation
/
Observational_studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Aged80
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
En
Journal:
PLoS One
Journal subject:
CIENCIA
/
MEDICINA
Year:
2013
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Germany