Economic burden of Parkinson's disease in Japan: long-term care expenditure for PD patients

Abstract

This study aims to quantify the economic burden of Parkinson's disease (PD) in Japan. We conducted a targeted literature review and extracted data on the direct medical costs and long-term care costs of PD patients based on their severity, as categorized by the Hoehn and Yahr (HY) disease severity scale. These costs were estimated using information from literature sources and governmental statistics. The mean annual long-term care costs for HY1 to 5 were estimated: JPY 333 433, 527 194, 982 578, 2 023 735, and 3 080 743, respectively. These estimates were based on a cross table of HY severity and designated grade of long-term care, which was extracted from a survey of PD patients in Tokyo conducted in 2017 and national statistics on long-term care expenditure per person in June 2023. Assuming that the number of PD patients in Japan is 200,000, the annual costs for direct medical, long-term care, and the total are estimated approximately JPY 380, 270, and 650 billion, respectively. These results suggest that PD requires a significant amount of long-term care resources.