Summary Excess weight is associated with severe outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). We aimed to estimate the total secondary care costs by body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) category when hospitalized due to COVID‐19 in Europe during the first wave of the pandemic from January to June 2020. Building a health‐care cost model, this study aimed to estimate the total costs of COVID‐19. Information on risk of hospitalization, admission to intensive care unit (ICU) and risk of ventilation were based on published data. Average cost per patient and in total were calculated based on risks of admission to ICU, risk of invasive mechanical ventilation and length of hospital stay when hospitalized and published costs associated with hospitalization. The total direct costs of secondary care during the first wave of COVID‐19 in Europe were estimated at EUR 13.9 billon, whereof 76% accounted for treating people with overweight and obesity. The average cost per hospital admission increased with BMI, from EUR 15831 for BMI <25 kg/m2 to EUR 30982 for BMI ≥40 kg/m2. This study reveals that excess weight contributes disproportionally to the costs of COVID‐19. This might reflect that overweight and obesity caused the COVID‐19 pandemic to result in more severe outcomes for citizens and higher secondary care costs throughout Europe.

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Objective To describe fatigue in relation to disease-specific and socioeconomic factors and to test possible correlations between fatigue and work impairment, quality of life, pain, sleep, depression, and physical functioning in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA). Methods A questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey collecting patient characteristics such as disease characteristics, socioeconomic factors and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) from patients with RA, PsA and axSpA in Denmark. PRO scales included the FACIT-Fatigue sub-scale, Work Productivity and Activity Impairment scale (WPAI), EuroQol (EQ-5D), Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale (MOS), Major Depression Inventory (MDI), and Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ). Respondents were recruited via routine visits to the outpatient rheumatology clinic; information on diagnosis, treatment and disease activity was collected from medical journals by trained nurses. Results 487 patients participated in the study. Fatigue was more present in women, experienced patients, and patients who changed medication in the past 12 months, who were unemployed, who had less education, and who had lower household income. There was no statistically significant difference between mean fatigue in the three diagnostic groups (p = 0.08). Fatigue correlated with all included PROs (Pearson correlation coefficients, p<0.0001). Stratifying for diagnosis and adjusting for socioeconomic factors did not change the conclusion.

To estimate the cost of illness in adult patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD) a cohort study was conducted identifying Danish citizens (≥ 18 years) diagnosed with AD between 1997 and 2018 in the Danish National Patient Register. Moderate-to-severe AD was defined as ≥ 3 hospital contacts regarding AD the first year after diagnosis. Each patient with AD was matched to 3 reference individuals through the Central Person Registry. Societal costs included the direct costs for primary-sector visits, inpatient hospitalizations, outpatient contacts, prescription medicine and indirect costs of lost productivity 3 years before and 5 years after the index date (the study period). A total of 5,245 patients with moderate-to-severe AD were identified. The mean attributable healthcare costs for patients with moderate-to-severe AD were EUR 10,835 ( p < 0.0001) during the study period. Moderate-to-severe AD among adults inferred substantial economic burden compared with a group of matched reference individuals.

Background and rationale: Obesity is associated with the development and progression of many diseases. Understanding and management of obesity have become increasingly important; however, a knowledge gap remains between how healthcare providers (HCPs) consider weight-loss treatment and the importance of weight loss for improving obesity-related diseases. Objective:The objective of this study was to investigate how HCPs assess obesity, how they interpret the relationship between obesity and 12 recognized comorbidities of obesity (excluding diabetes), and their view about the value of various weight-loss therapies.Methods: This was a cross-sectional, non-interventional, descriptive study. Participants were medical doctors (HCPs) from eight European countries.Results: Eighty-nine percent of the 197 HCPs that completed the survey considered obesity a disease. For most of the 12 obesity-related diseases under consideration, a majority of HCPs agreed that weight loss could reverse the disease or prevent progression. Among HCPs who have recommended weight loss, lifestyle interventions were by far the most common recommendation. However, more than three out of four HCPs stated that they would be likely to prescribe anti-obesity medications if available and reimbursed. Conclusion:Most HCPs in this survey consider obesity a disease that needs to be treated. However, the majority of HCPs appear to prefer recommending lifestyle changes, although it is well documented that weight loss obtained by lifestyle changes is difficult to maintain. These results underscore the need for improved education of HCPs involved in the treatment of obesity-related diseases.