The socioeconomic costs of mental illness in Spain

Abstract

Mental illness affects a large number of people in the world, seriously impairing their quality of life and resulting in high socioeconomic costs for health care systems and society. Our aim is to estimate the socioeconomic impact of mental illness in Spain for the year 2002, including health care resources, informal care and loss of labour productivity. A prevalence-based approach was used to estimate direct medical costs, direct non-medical costs, and loss of labour productivity. The total costs of mental illness have been estimated at 7,019 million euros. Direct medical costs represented 39.6% of the total costs and 7.3% of total public healthcare expenditure in Spain. Informal care costs represented 17.7% of the total costs. Loss of labour productivity accounted for 42.7% of total costs. In conclusion, the costs of mental illness in Spain make a considerable economic impact from a societal perspective.

Cost of Disorders of the Brain in Spain

“…In Spain direct non-medical costs were proportionally more important than in Europe, while indirect costs tended to be lower. A previous study [57] estimated the socioeconomic costs of mental illness in Spain to total 7,018 € million in 2002. Our estimation was sixfold higher, 45,986 € million.…”

“…Several regional health authorities in Spain have recently shown interest in including costs-of-illness studies to support planning of their health budgets [62]. In addition, the Spanish Ministry of Health has included within its disease management plans estimations of the cost-of-illness for diabetes mellitus, ischemic heart disease and cancer [57]. It has also funded cost studies of neurological diseases but not of mental diseases.…”

Assessment of Psychiatric Outcomes in Japan Based on Diagnostic Procedure Combination Information

“…Diagnostic-related groups (DRGs) have been utilized to evaluate health care costs in Spain [7]. In Australia and Germany, Fitzgerald [8] and Schreyögg et al,[9] respectively, used DRGs to assess costs.…”

The Relationship Between Reproductive Work and Sociodemographic and Psychosocial Factors in Regard to Psychological Distress in Men and Women in Spain

“…Estimates suggest that mental illness affects more than 25% of the global population at some point in their life and that 20% of primary care patients have one or more mental disorders (Brundtland 2001). This leads to high direct costs because of the use of social and healthcare services (Oliva-Moreno et al 2009;Smit et al 2006).…”