Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), consisting of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, can be a lifelong burden generating high costs to an economic system. Data regarding the cost of workplace presenteeism and absenteeism in workers with IBD are limited. Our objective was to assess these costs in employed adults. Methods: A structured questionnaire, hospital records and national registers were combined to assess the economic costs involved with workplace presenteeism and absenteeism in employed patients. Our final sample comprised 320 IBD patients. The costs were calculated as productivity-loss costs by using a Human Capital Approach. Results: Due to IBD, the mean annual economic costs of workplace presenteeism were e643.90/ patient, and mean annual absenteeism costs were e740.90/patient. Women had higher costs (e955/ patient/year) from absenteeism compared to men (e531/patient/year) especially when working bluecollar jobs. These findings were also evident in presenteeism. CD and UC patients had similar total costs due to presenteeism and absenteeism. The use of biologics did not have a major impact on these costs. Conclusion: IBD patients had moderate economic costs from workplace presenteeism and absenteeism. Interestingly, women, working blue-collar jobs, had higher costs than men.
BackgroundInflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are chronic diseases associated with a high and continuous economic burden. The introduction of biologics has changed the distribution of costs over the past two decades, and there are no recent studies on direct costs in Finland. This study aimed to estimate the direct healthcare costs of these diseases in a tertiary-level clinic.MethodsThe data were collected during a 1-year period of patients with IBD visiting Turku University Hospital. Patients were included if they lived in the hospital district area and were over 18 years old. This comprised an IBD group of 2208 patients, including 794 cases of CD and 1414 cases of UC. A sex-matched and age-matched control group was collected for comparison. Direct costs were collected during a 1-year study period from the hospital records.ResultsTotal direct costs per patient with IBD in a tertiary-level clinic were €4223 annually. IBD-generated direct costs were estimated to total €3981 per patient annually. Patients with IBD who were given infliximab had €9157 higher direct healthcare costs per patient annually than patients with IBD with no infliximab medication. Direct healthcare costs generated in a tertiary-level gastroenterological clinic averaged €1652 per patient with IBD annually. On average, patients with CD had €1111 higher direct healthcare costs annually than patients with UC.ConclusionsThe direct healthcare costs of IBD were significant, almost 17-fold higher compared with a control group. Patients with IBD administered with biologics had significantly higher costs. Patients with CD had higher annual infliximab costs than patients with UC.
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