Research Center for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran.
J Dig Dis. 2011 Oct;12(5):384-92. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-2980.2011.00526.x.
While few population-based studies on the economic burden of functional bowel disorders (FBD) have been published from developing countries like Iran, this study aimed to estimate their direct and indirect costs for five groups of patients: irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), functional constipation (FC), unspecified-FBD (U-FBD), functional abdominal bloating (FAB) and functional diarrhea (FD).
Up to 18,180 adults randomly sampled from Tehran, Iran (2006-2007) were interviewed using two questionnaires based on the Rome III criteria to detect FBD patients and to estimate their medical expenses (such as visiting the doctor, drugs, hospitalization and laboratory tests) and productivity loss in the previous 6 months. All costs were converted to dollar purchasing power parity (PPP$) to facilitate cross-country comparisons.
The mean total 6-month costs were approximately: 160, 147, 103, 96 and 42 PPP$ for IBS, FC, U-FBD, FAB and FD, respectively. The highest proportion of drug consumption was found in IBS patients. The highest mean duration of absence from work was seen in IBS patients (2.26 days). Overall, doctor visit costs accounted for approximately 1/3 of the total costs for FBD, followed by hospitalization. A higher indirect cost of illness was found in IBS (54 PPP$), whereas it was zero in FD.
The economic burden of FBD seems to be moderately high in Iran and it imposes a relatively heavy financial burden on the Iranian national health system because of its high prevalence and its impact on quality of life, productivity and waste of resources.
尽管来自伊朗等发展中国家的基于人群的功能性肠病（FBD）经济负担研究很少，但本研究旨在估算 5 组患者（肠易激综合征（IBS）、功能性便秘（FC）、未特指-FBD（U-FBD）、功能性腹胀（FAB）和功能性腹泻（FD））的直接和间接成本。
从伊朗德黑兰（2006-2007 年）随机抽取 18180 名成年人，使用基于罗马 III 标准的两个问卷进行访谈，以检测 FBD 患者并估算他们在过去 6 个月的医疗费用（如看医生、药物、住院和实验室检查）和生产力损失。所有成本均转换为美元购买力平价（PPP$），以促进跨国比较。
IBS、FC、U-FBD、FAB 和 FD 的 6 个月平均总成本分别约为 160、147、103、96 和 42 PPP$。IBS 患者药物消费比例最高。IBS 患者缺勤时间最长（2.26 天）。总体而言，医生就诊费用约占 FBD 总费用的 1/3，其次是住院费用。IBS 的疾病间接成本较高（54 PPP$），而 FD 则为零。
FBD 的经济负担在伊朗似乎较高，由于其高患病率及其对生活质量、生产力和资源浪费的影响，对伊朗国家卫生系统造成了相对较重的经济负担。
