TY - JOUR

T1 - The cost of depression

T2 - A cost analysis from a large database

AU - Kleine-Budde, Katja

AU - Müller, Romina

AU - Kawohl, Wolfram

AU - Bramesfeld, Anke

AU - Moock, Jörn

AU - Rössler, Wulf

N1 - Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PY - 2013/5

Y1 - 2013/5

N2 - BACKGROUND:Depression poses a serious economic problem. We performed a cost-of-illness study using data from a German health insurance company to determine which costs are unique to that disease.METHODS:The analysis included every adult and continuously insured person. Using claims data from 2007 to 2009, we calculated the costs incurred by persons with depression, including services provided for inpatient and outpatient care, drugs and psychiatric outpatient clinics. Subgroup analyses were done using demographic and disease-specific variables. Longitudinal predictors of depression-related costs were obtained through a generalized estimating equations (GEE) analysis.RESULTS:This investigation involved 117,220 persons. Mean annual depression-specific costs per person were €458.9, with those costs decreasing over the study period. The main cost component (43.9% of the total) was inpatient care. It was found that persons with a severe course of disease and unemployed persons are more costly than other persons. The GEE analysis revealed that gender, age, residency within an urban area, occupational status and the type of diagnosis had a significant impact on these costs.LIMITATIONS:Due to data constraints, we were unable to include all cost categories that might be related to depression and we had no control group of persons without depression.CONCLUSIONS:Due to the influence of the severity of the disease on costs, effective treatment strategies are important in order to prevent a progression of the disease and an increase in costs.

AB - BACKGROUND:Depression poses a serious economic problem. We performed a cost-of-illness study using data from a German health insurance company to determine which costs are unique to that disease.METHODS:The analysis included every adult and continuously insured person. Using claims data from 2007 to 2009, we calculated the costs incurred by persons with depression, including services provided for inpatient and outpatient care, drugs and psychiatric outpatient clinics. Subgroup analyses were done using demographic and disease-specific variables. Longitudinal predictors of depression-related costs were obtained through a generalized estimating equations (GEE) analysis.RESULTS:This investigation involved 117,220 persons. Mean annual depression-specific costs per person were €458.9, with those costs decreasing over the study period. The main cost component (43.9% of the total) was inpatient care. It was found that persons with a severe course of disease and unemployed persons are more costly than other persons. The GEE analysis revealed that gender, age, residency within an urban area, occupational status and the type of diagnosis had a significant impact on these costs.LIMITATIONS:Due to data constraints, we were unable to include all cost categories that might be related to depression and we had no control group of persons without depression.CONCLUSIONS:Due to the influence of the severity of the disease on costs, effective treatment strategies are important in order to prevent a progression of the disease and an increase in costs.

KW - Health sciences

KW - Gesundheitsökonomie

KW - Cost of care

KW - Cost-of-illness

KW - Depression

KW - Germany

KW - Health economics

KW - Cost of care

KW - Cost-of-illness

KW - Depression

KW - Germany

KW - Health economics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84875365916&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.jad.2012.10.024

DO - 10.1016/j.jad.2012.10.024

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 23164461

VL - 147

SP - 137

EP - 143

JO - Journal of Affective Disorders

JF - Journal of Affective Disorders

SN - 0165-0327

SN - 1573-2517

IS - 1-3

ER -