Costs and quality of life in multiple sclerosis in Europe: method of assessment and analysis.

The objective of this observational study in nine European countries was to establish the current cost of MS at different levels of disease severity. The study used a prevalence-based bottom-up to estimate costs from a societal perspective. Patients were recruited via patient organizations and neurology centres and asked by mail to complete a detailed questionnaire concerning their resource consumption, work capacity, quality of life and current disease status. Resources included all health-care and social services, personal expenditures, informal care and temporary or definitive work absence. Quality of life was collected as utility and disease information collected related to functional capacity, relapses and fatigue. The data were analyzed separately for each country, using local unit costs but a fully standardized methodology. A total of 13 186 patients at all levels of disease severity participated in the survey, with an average response rate of around 40% (range 20-75%). This paper describes the methodology used for the study, while results are presented in the individual country reports.