Article
A non-interventional, retrospective, cross-sectional study to assess EDSS specific costs and quality of life of patients with multiple sclerosis in Germany
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Published: | March 23, 2011 |
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Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common non-traumatic cause of neurologic disability affecting young adults and is linked to high direct and indirect costs. While cost of illness studies have been carried out in the prior decade, detailed cost data specific to Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) levels is limited in Germany. Such data are important for health economic assessment of new MS therapeutics.
Material/methods: In this non-interventional, retrospective, cross-sectional study the following data was collected from patients: costs (in € for 2009) of MS from a societal and Third Party Payers’ perspective as well as data on quality of life (utility weights based on EQ-5D). The data of 244 adult patients from Germany was collected between May 2009 and October 2010 using questionnaires and was analyzed descriptively.
Results: As EDSS increases, reflecting a higher level of disability caused by MS, costs from the societal as well as the payers’ perspective increased significantly whereas quality of life decreased. Detailed results are displayed in Table 1 [Tab. 1].
Conclusion/implication: In MS, costs increase significantly in relation to EDSS from a societal and payers’ perspective. MS also significantly impairs the quality of life of affected patients. The results of this study provide an important update to the literature in an era of more widespread use of MS disease modifying treatments. The results can be used to better understand cost-effectiveness of various treatment alternatives in MS from the German perspective.