The health and economic impact of acute gastroenteritis in Belgium, 2010–2014

Abstract

Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) remains a common condition in both low- and high-income countries. In Belgium, however, there is currently a lack of information on the societal health and economic impact of AGE. We conducted a retrospective study using mortality and cause-of-death data, hospital data, primary care data, health interview survey data and other published data. We estimated the burden of illness during a 5-year period (2010–2014) in Belgium in terms of deaths, patients admitted to hospitals, patients consulting their general practitioner (GP) and cases occurring in the community. We further quantified the health impact in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and the economic impact in terms of cost-of-illness estimates. We estimated 343 deaths, 27 707 hospitalised patients, 464 222 GP consultations and 10 058 741 episodes occurring in the community (0.91 cases/person) on average per year. AGE was associated with 11 855 DALYs per year (107 DALY per 100 000 persons). The economic burden was estimated to represent direct costs of €112 million, indirect costs of €927 million (90% of the total costs) and an average total cost of €103 per case and €94 per person. AGE results in a substantial health and economic impact in Belgium, justifying continued mitigation efforts.

Occurrence of Human Enteric Viruses in Water Sources and Shellfish: A Focus on Africa

“…The consumption of shellfish harvested from faecally contaminated waters is directly associated with outbreaks of viral gastroenteritis (reviewed in Bellou et al, 2013 ). Such outbreaks occur on a regular basis worldwide (Le Guyader et al 2008 ; Westrell et al 2010 ; Iritani et al 2014 ; Lunestad et al 2016 ; Woods et al 2016 ; Meghnath et al 2019 ) with potentially significant associated economic costs (Rheingans et al 2009 ; Navas et al 2015 ; Bartsch et al 2016 ; Papadopoulos et al 2019 ). Among the enteric viruses, NoV and HAV represent the majority of viral illnesses (Iizuka et al 2010 ; Pepe et al 2012 ; Fusco et al 2013 , 2019 ; La Bella et al 2017 ), although other viruses like HEV, HAstV, RV, SaV and AiV impact shellfisheries with symptoms that are more or less similar to those caused by NoVs (Pina et al 1998 ; Le Guyader et al 2008 ; Nakagawa-Okamoto et al 2009 ; Iritani et al 2014 ; La Bella et al 2017 ; La Rosa et al 2018 ).…”

Nursery outbreak caused by enteroaggregative Escherichia coli serogroup O111:H21

“…The existing data are better apprehended globally. The economic burden of gastroenteritis occurring in patients of any age, evaluated over 5 years (2010–2014) was estimated at 112 million euros [1]. In Canada, AGEs are also very common with an average of 1.3 episodes per person per year, which translates into more than 40 million incidents with an estimated cost of $3.7 billion annually [2].…”

Economic Burden of Acute Gastroenteritis among Members of Integrated Healthcare Delivery System, United States, 2014–2016

“…Several studies in Europe and the United States have evaluated the costs of AGE and of MAAGE, with a focus on the costs attributable to the onset and duration of an MAAGE episode. Researchers in Belgium estimated that MAAGE episodes accounted for direct costs of €112 million ($126 million in 2017 US dollars) in Belgium annually ( 4 ), and researchers in Switzerland estimated that healthcare costs resulting from AGE in combination with campylobacteriosis amounted to €29–45 million ($33–51 million in 2017 US dollars) in Switzerland annually ( 5 ). A study estimating the impact of MAAGE among a managed care population in the United States estimated a substantial annual burden of MAAGE episodes to health systems of $3.88 billion and demonstrated that the costs attributed to AGE increased ≈26% during 2006–2011 ( 6 ).…”