Anorexia and bulimia are relatively rare psychogenic illnesses, which nevertheless are of great concern for society since they affect a mostly very young population and are accompanied by a significantly raised mortality risk. This cost-of-illness analysis for eating disorders in Germany considers hospitalization, rehabilitation services, and indirect costs through inability to work and premature death. The cost estimates are based on projections derived from benefit data as listed by health insurance schemes and pension insurance schemes and from epidemiological studies on the prevalence of eating disorders and mortality rates. For anorexia the cost of illness amounts to approximately 195 million euros (73 direct costs and 122 mortality costs, for bulimia it comes to around 124 million euros (12 direct costs and 112 mortality costs). The annual cost per anorexia and bulimia patient is approximately 5,300 and 1,300 euros, respectively. This cost-of-illness analysis underlines the significance of indirect costs due to premature death, but also highlights the extremely cost-intensive treatment. The hospitalization cost of 12,800 euros per anorexia patient is markedly higher than the average hospitalization cost of 3,600 euros.

Medical rehabilitation in Germany is still lacking in patient education programmes that meet certain quality requirements such as the use of manuals, patient-oriented didactics, and evaluations of effectiveness. For patients with chronic low back pain, no standardized and evaluated back school programme has so far been available for routine use. In this paper, we demonstrate the development of a quality-assured back school based on a health-education programme of the German statutory pension insurance scheme. Both topics and didactics incorporate treatment evidence, practice guidelines, quality criteria for patient education and theories of health and illness behaviour. First, formative evaluation was conducted to assess patient acceptance and practicability of the manual. Second, effects of the back school programme were assessed on a short-term (at the end of rehabilitation), medium-term (6-month follow-up) and long-term (12-month follow-up) basis in a randomized controlled study of patients with low back pain (n=360). Results show a significant medium treatment effect in patients' knowledge about chronic back pain and its treatment at the end of rehabilitation (p<0.001; eta (2)=0.080). Furthermore, small to medium effects were also observed among some secondary outcomes, such as motivation to physical activity, pain beliefs and pain intensity. After the programme's medium- and long-term effects have been demonstrated, it will be recommended for implementation in medical rehabilitation. The manual meets the requirements that allow for a successful transfer into clinical practice.

No abstract

No abstract

Relevant data bases were used to collect and evaluate guidelines, meta-analyses, and reviews as well as primary studies dealing with asthma therapy for children and adolescents. Treatment approaches whose effectiveness with regard to bronchial asthma was empirically verified (i. e., evidence-based) were identified (medical and diagnostic procedures as well as drug trials were excluded from the analysis). 152 methodically sound studies referring to asthma treatment of children and adolescents were selected. Strong evidence was found for patient education, parent education, exercise therapy, inhalation, and tobacco withdrawal. Nutritional counseling and avoidance of allergens showed limited evidence. Psychotherapy, relaxation techniques, breathing exercises, climate therapy, clinical social work (social and legal counseling services, vocational reintegration counseling, aftercare) and integration counseling showed inconsistent evidence. No evidence was found for alternative medicine. Challenges regarding the development of treatment standards for children and adolescent rehabilitation are highlighted; these refer to limitations in report quality in some of the studies, the validity of treatments for comorbid conditions, a lack of differentiation for different age groups, and transferability of outpatient or international study results to inpatient rehabilitation.