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DOI: 10.1055/a-2378-3468
GebFra Science
Original Article

Self-reported Costs of Endometriosis Patients in Germany

Artikel in mehreren Sprachen: English | deutsch
Nicole Rebecca Heinze 
1   Science, Endo Health GmbH, Chemnitz, Germany
,
Teresa Götz
1   Science, Endo Health GmbH, Chemnitz, Germany
,
Nadine Rohloff
1   Science, Endo Health GmbH, Chemnitz, Germany
,
Lisa Schaller
1   Science, Endo Health GmbH, Chemnitz, Germany
,
Roman Spelsberg
2   fbeta GmbH, Berlin, Germany
3   Department of Health Services Research, Care and Public Health Research Institute (CAPHRI), Faculty of Health Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands (Ringgold ID: RIN5211)
,
Sebastian Daniel Schäfer
4   Clemenshospital GmbH Münster, Münster, Germany (Ringgold ID: RIN39875)
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Abstract

Endometriosis patients face a significant economic burden. In addition to the directly attributable costs of the diagnosis and therapy of endometriosis, such as drug treatment and multimodal pain therapy, various indirect follow-up costs can be expected, e.g., due to incapacity for work and reduced work performance. As already reported in previous publications, endometriosis is associated with considerable costs for the health care system and society as well as for the affected women and their families.

In order to measure the extent of the costs associated with endometriosis patients, 250 patients with an average age of 32.80 years were recruited via social media and interviewed about their self-financed costs as part of an online survey. The assessed direct costs comprise inpatient treatments, outpatient or pain therapy, fertility treatments, hormone therapies, prescribed and privately paid medications and aids, other therapeutic procedures, and directly attributable travel costs for endometriosis treatments.

This resulted in an average cost of € 2059.55 per year. Indirect costs were calculated based on loss of income, day-to-day support, care costs, costs due to follow-up illnesses and other costs. On average, the indirect costs were € 2174.25. The average costs resulting from the survey totalled € 4233.81 per year with a standard deviation of € 8240.31.

An increase of out-of-pocket costs can be assumed. This may result from an improved range of services for alternative treatment methods and an increased awareness of the need for personal investment in health. However, further health economic studies are needed to validate the results.

Keywords

endometriosis - cost of illness - health care costs

Supplementary Material



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Eingereicht: 16. April 2024

Angenommen nach Revision: 28. Juli 2024

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
05. September 2024

© 2024. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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