Jungen D, et al. – An investigation was carried out of the annual costs of psoriasis in Germany from the societal perspective. A significant economic burden of psoriasis was illustrated. A prominent shift was observed of the costs from hospital, out–of–pocket and indirect costs towards systemic drug costs, between 2003 and 2014.

Methods

• The scheme of this research was a cross-sectional study.
• It was carried out at randomly selected German dermatology practices and clinics in 2013/2014 using standardised questionnaires of illness-related costs.
• Costs were grouped by perspective and category as well as analysed by sex and age.
• Group variations were analyzed via non-parametric tests.

Results

• The study involved 1,158 patients from 132 centres.
• Annual average costs for patients with psoriasis: Total costs € 5,543 ± € 8,044, systemic treatment costs (paid by the statutory health insurances (SHI)) € 3,733 ± € 7,322, out-of-pocket costs € 224 ± € 406, total SHI costs € 4,940 ± € 7,533, direct costs € 5,164 ± € 7,581 and indirect costs € 379 ± € 2,087.
• The data revealed prominent higher costs in male and significant lower costs in 65+-year-old patients.