PSS15 Burden of Chronic Tinnitus in Hungary

Abstract

Tinnitus has a major effect on quality of life when it occurs for a longer period of time. It is a conservative estimate that 10% of the general population experiences spontaneous prolonged tinnitus. The aim of this study is to estimate the burden and cost of tinnitus in Hungary from three different perspectives, as no publicly available cost or burden of illness study has been found in this field. The objective is to fill this gap in the Hungarian setting. The present study identified both the costs that are made and the resources that are lost in the form of direct medical and nonmedical costs and indirect costs associated with tinnitus. An expert panel based estimate was used to identify probabilities for the different paths and resource use, due to lack of information in the literature. Direct medical costs were observed from the National Health Insurer's (NHI) database, while the indirect costs were estimated according to the human capital approach. The cost estimates were based on a model structured by a decision tree. An annual cost of 91,891Ft (€ 328) has been estimated for a newly diagnosed tinnitus patient. The average treatment cost borne by the NHI is 6,363Ft (€ 23), while a 37,534Ft (€ 134) cost was assigned to the diagnosis of a typical patient attending an ENT specialist. Indirect cost consist of sick leave cost which is 861Ft (€3.1), 3,118Ft (€11) and 8,743Ft (€31) in the different cost categories of NHI costs, out of pocket costs and societal costs, respectively. From the societal perspective, the annual cost of tinnitus amounted for 0.01% of the Hungarian GDP in 2009 which is almost evenly borne by the NHI and the population with tinnitus. There is little information in either the Hungarian or the international literature to validate the model against.