New insights into the burden and costs of multiple sclerosis in Europe

Abstract

Background:The current focus in multiple sclerosis (MS) is on early diagnosis and drug intervention, with a view to modifying disease progression. Consequently, healthcare costs have shifted from inpatient care and rehabilitation to outpatient care.Objectives:This European burden of illness study provides data that can be combined with other evidence to assess whether management approaches provide value to society.Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted in 16 countries. Patients reported on their disease, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and resource consumption. Descriptive analyses were performed by disease severity. Costs are reported from a societal perspective in 2015€ PPP (adjusted for purchasing power parity).Results:The 16,808 participants had a mean age of 51.5 years, and 52% had relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Work capacity declined from 82% to 8%, and utility declined from normal population values to less than zero with advancing disease. Mean costs were 22,800€ PPP in mild, 37,100€ PPP in moderate and 57,500€ PPP in severe disease; healthcare accounted for 68%, 47% and 26%, respectively. Fatigue and cognitive difficulties were reported by 95% and 71% of participants, respectively; both had a significant independent effect on utility.Conclusion:Costs and utility were highly correlated with disease severity, but resource consumption was heavily influenced by healthcare systems organisation and availability of services.

The burden of multiple sclerosis 2015: Methods of data collection, assessment and analysis of costs, quality of life and symptoms

“…Mean total annual cost per patient by disease severity and resource type, PPP EUR 2015 (N = 16,808). 15 Reprinted from Kobelt, 2017 16 , with permission from Multiple Sclerosis. EDSS: Expanded Disability Status Scale PPP: Purchasing Power Parity.…”

“…16 It uses the same methods as an earlier survey in nine countries to allow, with a number of precautions, illustration of the development of costs over the decade. 15 This article details the study approach and methods used, while the results for the different countries are described in individual papers in this supplement.…”

Living with Multiple Sclerosis in Europe: Pharmacological Treatments, Cost of Illness, and Health-Related Quality of Life Across Countries

“…Table 1 reports on data about MS prevalence across European countries, collected through the national MS societies joining the EMSP. Further evidence is presented in Table 2, which contains data collected by the EMSP (11), retrieved through the Atlas of MS (www.atlasofms.org), the report Under Pressure, Living with MS in Europe, released by the EMSP (www.underpressureproject.eu) and some recent studies (1,12). Data are representative of the year 2013 and relate to prevalence and access to disease-modifying drugs (DMDs) and symptomatic treatments, which will be discussed in more detail in the next section.…”

“…There are several recent studies on COI that have been carried out for working-aged individuals, reporting that indirect costs contributed to approximately 75% of the estimated costs of MS patients (90). Costs and utility are highly correlated with disease severity, and resource consumption may be influenced by health care systems' organization and availability of services (12). The studies on HRQoL are aimed at assessing several aspects of the pathology, in particular, relapses associated with increased fatigue and reduced HRQoL (91).…”

An Approach for Analyzing Noisy Multiple Sclerosis Images Using Truncated Beta Gaussian Mixture Model

“…In order to overcome this disease, lot of medical research is triggered in this direction [7][8] [9] however, most of these methodologies hinder to identify the cases appropriately and robustly. This is mainly due to the presence of noise and other influencing factors, such as multiple symptoms which hampers the effective treatment.…”