Cost of Parkinson's disease among Filipino patients seen at a public tertiary hospital in Metro Manila.

BACKGROUND

Cost of illness (COI) studies are used to estimate the economic burden of a particular disease. The chronicity of Parkinson's disease (PD) and its lack of treatment make its projected economic burden to grow substantially over the next few decades.

METHODS

To evaluate the cost of having PD, a COI study was done in a public tertiary hospital in Metro Manila, Philippines. PD patients who were consecutively seen at out patient clinic for a period of six months were included in this study and were interviewed using a ready-made financial burden questionnaire. To identify the possible factors that may affect the cost, European Quality of Life 5 Dimensions (EQ5D), Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Philippines (MoCA-P), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-Pilipino (HADS-P), Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) motor and activities of daily living (ADL) scores, Schwab and England ADL and Hoehn and Yahr scoring were also administered.

RESULTS

Thirty three consecutive PD patients (mean age: 58.4 yrs, men: 52%) were identified. The annual total cost of PD per capita was Php 308,796 (USD 6175) with direct cost accounting for 23% and indirect cost 77%. The main cost components for direct medical, direct non-medical and indirect cost were pharmacotherapy (97%), home care (42.6%) and productivity loss (100%) respectively. The factors observed to have high cost of PD included being male, married, employed, the presence of wearing off phenomenon, low MOCA-P and HADS-P, low Schwab and England ADL and increasing Hoehn and Yahr stage.

CONCLUSION

This study showed that PD is a costly neurodegenerative disease that may pose a significant economic burden on patients, health care system and society.