Treating patients with fibromyalgia in primary care settings under routine medical practice: a claim database cost and burden of illness study.
ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: The objective of this study is to analyze healthcare and non-healthcare resources utilization under routine medical practice in a primary care setting claims database, and to estimate the incremental average cost per patient per year of fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) compared with a reference population. METHODS: A 12-month cross-sectional and retrospective study was completed using computerized medical records from a health provider database. Analyses were conducted from the perspective of the provider and the society viewpoint. Healthcare and non-healthcare resources utilization included drugs, complementary tests, all types of medical visits, referrals, hospitalizations, sick leaves and early retirement because of disability due to FMS. Patients with a diagnosis of FMS, in accordance with ICD-10 criteria, were included in the analysis if they had at least one claim for FMS during the 12 months prior to the end of May 2007. A non-FMS comparison group was also created with the remaining subjects. RESULTS: One thousand eighty-one subjects [96.7% women, 54.2 (10.1) years] met the criteria for FMS: 1.7%. After adjusting for age and sex, FMS subjects used significantly more healthcare resources than the reference population, had more sick leaves and the percentage of subjects with premature retirement was also significantly higher (P<0.001 in all cases). As a result, FMS subjects showed an incremental adjusted per-patient per-year total cost of 5,010 euros (95% CI: 3,494-6,076; +153%, P<0.001) on average compared with non-FMS subjects. Significantly higher differences were observed both in healthcare and non-healthcare adjusted costs; 614 euros (404-823; +66%) and 4,394 euros (3,373-5,420; +189%), respectively (P<0.001 in both cases). Annual drug expenditure per patient on average was considerably higher in FMS patients, 230 euros (124-335; +64%, P<0.001), than the reference group. CONCLUSIONS: Under routine medical practice, patients with FMS were associated with considerably higher annual total costs in the primary care setting compared with the reference population.
PMID: 19366441 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
