Direct health system costs for systemic lupus erythematosus patients in Alberta, Canada

by Francis Fatoye, Tadesse Gebrye, Lawrence W. Svenson Systemic lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic multi-system autoimmune disease that can affect a person’s physical, mental, and social life. It imposes a substantial economic burden up on patients, carers, healthcare systems, and wider society. This is the first study to examine the direct heal th care costs of SLE in Alberta using real-world data. Alberta maintains a publicly funded, universally available health care system. Health service use and direct healthcare costs of SLE and non-SLE cases were determined from inpatient hospital services, fee-for-physician services, emergency servic es, and ambulatory care services. All costs were estimated for calendar year 2016. Data were analysed using central measures specifically the mean to determine the annual costs of SLE and non-SLE. A total number of 10,932 (Male = 2,546; Female = 8,386), and 41,851,36 (Male = 21,157,76; Female = 20,6 93,60) of SLE and non-SLE cases, respectively were included in this study. The mean annual costs of SLE, and non-SLE per case were $7,740.19 (Male = $7,986.59; Female = $7,665.38), and $2,479.53 (Male = $2,265.57; Female = $2,698.30), (p
Source: PLoS One - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Source Type: research