Evaluation of health-care utilization among adult patients with epilepsy in Germany
2012; Elsevier BV; Volume: 23; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/j.yebeh.2012.01.021
ISSN1525-5069
AutoresAdam Strzelczyk, Tanja Nickolay, Sebastian Bauer, Anja Haag, Susanne Knake, Wolfgang H. Oertel, Philipp S. Reif, Felix Rosenow, Jens Peter Reese, Richard Dodel, Hajo M. Hamer,
Tópico(s)Metabolism and Genetic Disorders
ResumoThis study evaluated the resource use of patients with epilepsy in the German district of Marburg-Biedenkopf. A cross-sectional cohort of consecutive adults with epilepsy, irrespective of seizure severity, duration of illness and epilepsy syndrome, was investigated in all health-care sectors. Costs of inpatient and outpatient treatment were derived from billing data of participating hospitals and office-based physicians. Data on socioeconomic status, course of epilepsy and further direct and indirect costs were recorded using patient questionnaires. We enrolled 366 patients from the district of Marburg-Biedenkopf and calculated annual epilepsy-specific costs of €7738 per patient. Direct costs contributed 31.1% (€2406) and indirect costs 68.9% (€5332) of the total costs. Direct medical costs were mainly due to hospitalization (33.2% of total direct costs) and anticonvulsants (26.7%). Costs of admissions were due to status epilepticus (24.4%), video-EEG monitoring (14.8%), newly diagnosed patients (14.4%) and seizure-related injuries (8.8%). Indirect costs were mainly due to early retirement (38.0%), unemployment (35.9%) and days off due to seizures (26.2%). The mean costs of epilepsy found in our study were lower than those found in studies conducted at European epilepsy centers due to the inclusion of patients in all health-care sectors.
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