Pattern of complications and burden of disease in patients affected by beta thalassemia major

Abstract

The pattern of complications changes according to birth cohort and differentiates older from younger patients. The burden of the disease and its costs increase after the onset of the first complication, therefore prevention of complications is fundamental in these patients.

A cost-of-illness analysis of β-Thalassaemia major in children in Sri Lanka – experience from a tertiary level teaching hospital

“…A common approach to measuring economic hardship associated with health payments is to define a 'catastrophic' spending level of > 10% of household income. This degree of cost burden is considered to directly impact consumption of basic needs such as food and education or trigger the sales of assets leading to higher levels of debt or poverty [4][5][6][7][8].…”

“…We identified 14 COI studies of thalassaemia, published between 1975 and 2017, in Canada, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Myanmar, Taiwan, Thailand and the UK [1,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Reported medical costs to health services ranged from $US 873 to almost $40,000 per patient year [9,13].…”

A Cost-of-Illness analysis of β-Thalassaemia major in children in Sri Lanka – Experience from a tertiary level teaching hospital

“…Factors accounting for the variation in costs in previous studies 4,9,[18][19][20][21][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] included age of the patients, treatment regimen and the number of complications. Differences in study design included the use of hypothetical patients and which costs were included such as productivity loss and those related to complications.…”

“…A common approach to measuring economic hardship associated with health payments is to define a 'catastrophic' spending level of >10% of household income. This degree of cost burden is considered to directly impact consumption of basic needs such as food and education or trigger the sales of assets leading to higher levels of debt or poverty 6-8 . We identified 14 COI studies of thalassaemia, published between 1975-2017, in Canada, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Myanmar, Taiwan, Thailand and the UK 4,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] . Reported medical costs to health services ranged from $US 873 to almost $40,000 per patient year 10,15 .…”

Beta-Talasemia: Un mundo de complicaciones con nuevas alternativas de tratamiento.

“…La aparición de métodos no invasivos para medir el hierro orgánico antes de la aparición de los síntomas clínicos junto con los nuevos quelantes de hierro han reducido la incidencia de complicaciones relacionadas con la sobrecarga de hierro [43]. Sin embargo, a pesar de la correcta aplicación de intervenciones diagnósticas y terapéuticas los pacientes talasémicos pueden experimentar enfermedades secundarias o complicaciones que han asumido un papel nuevo e importante en el curso de esta enfermedad en los últimos años [43,44]. La hipoxia, la eritropoyesis ineficaz y la sobrecarga de hierro contribuyen a producir las complicaciones en múltiples órganos; de los cuales el Universidad de Manizales -Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud hígado, el corazón y las glándulas endocrinas son los órganos afectados con mayor frecuencia y es en quienes finalmente se observan complicaciones cirrosis, insuficiencia cardíaca y defectos endocrinos (hipotiroidismo, hipopituitarismo, hipogonadismo, hipoparatiroidismo) [45].…”