Resource utilisation and costs for the different categories of health care resource for the three chronic musculoskeletal conditions
| Annual health resource use per patient | Annual costs (€/patient) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FM (n = 69) | CLBP (n = 110) | AS (n = 111) | FM (n = 69) | CLBP(n = 110) | AS (n = 111) | |
| Values are mean (median) [% of patients]. | ||||||
| *For these categories only the costs and not the number of resources used were recorded. Thus the “health resource use” columns present only the proportion of patients who incurred costs for this category. | ||||||
| AS, ankylosing spondylitis; CLBP, chronic low back pain; FM, fibromyalgia. | ||||||
| General practitioner (visits) | 4.6 (2.0) [73%] | 4.8 (3.0) [73%] | 2.1 (1.3) [57%] | 81 (35) [1.5%] | 85 (53) [1.5%] | 37 (23) [1.5%] |
| Specialist physician (visits) | 3.8 (2.0) [79%] | 3.1 (1.0) [56%] | 2.8 (2.6) [56%] | 296 (155) [5.6%] | 243 (78) [4.3%] | 215 (202) [9.1%] |
| Physiotherapist (visits) | 15.3 (0.0) [46%] | 9.5 (0.0) [40%] | 23.2 (11.7) [60%] | 297 (0) [5.7%] | 185 (0) [3.3%] | 449 (226) [18.9%] |
| Complementary medicine (visits) | 2.4 (0.0) [100%] | 0.9 (0.0) [13%] | 0.6 (0.0) [9%] | 180 (0) [3.4%] | 97 (0) [1.7%] | 41 (0) [1.7%] |
| Psychotherapist (visits) | No separate data | 1.2 (0.0) [15%] | No separate data | – | 124 (0) [2.2%] | – |
| Hospital admissions (days) | 0.6 (0.0) [7%] | 0.47 (0.0) [7%] | 0.14 (0.0) [3%] | 226 (0.0) [4.3%] | 167 (0) [3.0%] | 48 (0) [2.0%] |
| Prescription drugs (No of prescriptions) | 3.8 (3.0) [85%] | 1.8 (1.0) [66%] | 5.9 (3.9) [87%] | 183 (87) [3.5%] | 186 (41) [3.3%] | 249 (148) [10.5%] |
| Non-prescription drugs* | [32%] | [20%] | [12%] | 50 (133) [0.9%] | 24 (0) [0.4%] | 4 (0) [0.2%] |
| Direct medical costs | 1311 (673) [25%] | 1104 (594) [20%] | 1043 (691) [44%] | |||
| Unpaid household help (hours) | 93.9 (10.5) [57%] | 88.6 (0.0) [46%] | 29.5 (0.0) [20%] | 829 (93) [15.8%] | 782.5 (0) [14.0%] | 261 (0) [11.0%] |
| Paid household help (hours) | 59.7 (0.0) [47%] | 55.9 (0.0) [35%] | 17.9 (0.0) [15%] | 1505 (0) [28.7%] | 1410 (0) [25.2%] | 454 (0) [19.1%] |
| Paid and unpaid help (hours) | 153.6 (58.0) [70%] | 144.5 (55.0) [61%] | 47.5 (0.0) [26%] | 2334 (964) [44.5%] | 2193 (840) [39.2%] | 715 (0) [30.0%] |
| Inactivity (hours) | 33.1 (14.5) [54%] | 41.1 (8.0) [48%] | 11.7 (0.0) [25%] | 1454 (336) [27.7%] | 1925 (0) [34.4%] | 584 (0) [24.6%] |
| Aids/appliances/adaptations* | [30%] | [35%] | [5%] | 142 (0) [2.7%] | 372 (0) [6.6%] | 31 (0) [1.3%] |
| Direct non-medical costs | 3930 (2362) [75%] | 4491 (2502) [80%] | 1330 (0) [56%] | |||
| Total direct costs | 5241 (3166) [100%] | 5594 (3770) [100%] | 2373 (1305) [100%] | |||