Economic burden of patients with moderate to severe psoriasis and its influencing factors

Abstract

Objective To estimate direct economic burden of patients with moderate to severe psoriasis in China,and to assess its influencing factors.Methods A questionnaire survey was carried out in 150 patients with moderate to severe psoriasis from 29 third-grade class-A hospitals in 7 cities.Data on demographic characteristics,clinical features and direct economic burden were collected.Descriptive statistics were performed to analyze the direct economic burden of moderate to severe psoriasis,and multiple regression analysis was carried out to determine predictors of cost of illness.Results The patients were aged (43.87 ± 13.42) years,with an average clinical course of 3 years(range,2-6 years).Of them,82 had moderate psoriasis,and 68 had severe psoriasis.The average direct cost was (6 452 ± 6 391)RMB per patient-year,with significant difference between the patients with moderate psoriasis and those with severe psoriasis ((4 163 ± 4 605) vs.(9 212 ± 7 146) RMB,z =5.70,P ＜ 0.001).Regression analysis indicated that disease severity,clinical type,hospitalization,complications,and inhabited cities were factors influencing the direct economic burden of patients with moderate to severe psoriasis.Conclusions The direct eonomic burden of severe psoriasis seems to be twice that of moderate psoriasis in China.Physicians should strengthen the control of complications and disease severity,and pay more attention to other types of psoriasis than psoriasis vulgaris,during the treatment of psoriasis. Key words: Psoriasis; Socioeconomic factors; Epidemiologic factors