How does comorbidity affect cost of health care in patients with irritable bowel syndrome? A cohort study in general practice

BMC Gastroenterology

Research Article

Per A Johansson¹  Per O Vandvik¹  Per G Farup²  Andrea Bracco³ 

[1] Department of Medicine, Innlandet Hospital Trust, Gjøvik, Norway;Department of Medicine, Innlandet Hospital Trust, Gjøvik, Norway;Unit for Applied Clinical Research, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway;Institute for Medical Technology Assessment, Erasmus University, The Netherlands;

关键词: Irritable Bowel Syndrome;    Sick Leave;    Chronic Fatigue Syndrome;    Somatic Symptom;    Health Resource;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-230X-10-31

 received in 2009-10-13, accepted in 2010-03-17,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIrritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is associated with other disorders (comorbidity), reduced quality of life and increased use of health resources. We aimed to explore the impact of comorbidity on cost of health care in patients with IBS in general practice.MethodsIn this cohort study 208 consecutive patients with IBS (Rome II) were recruited. Sociodemographic data, IBS symptoms, and comorbidity (somatic symptoms, organic diseases and psychiatric disorders) were assessed at baseline. Based on a follow up interview after 6-9 months and use of medical records, IBS and non-IBS related health resource use were measured as consultations, hospitalisations, use of medications and alternative health care products and sick leave days. Costs were calculated by national tariffs and reported in Norwegian Kroner (NOK, 1 EURO equals 8 NOK). Multivariate analyses were performed to identify predictors of costs.ResultsA total of 164 patients (mean age 52 years, 69% female, median duration of IBS 17 years) were available at follow up, 143 patients (88%) had consulted their GP of whom 31 (19%) had consulted for IBS. Mean number of sick- leave days for IBS and comorbidity were 1.7 and 16.3 respectively (p < 0.01), costs related to IBS and comorbidity were 954 NOK and 14854 NOK respectively (p < 0.001). Age, organic diseases and somatic symptoms, but not IBS severity, were significant predictors for total costs.ConclusionCosts for health resource use among patients with IBS in general practice were largely explained by comorbidity, which generated ten times the costs for IBS.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Johansson et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.