@article{10902/36774,
year = {2025},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10902/36774},
abstract = {Background: To estimate the socioeconomic burden of people with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (pwSPMS), considering direct health care, direct non-health care, and indirect costs, and to evaluate the relationship between costs and patients' functional outcomes.
Methods: Observational, cross-sectional, multicenter study with retrospective real-life clinical practice data collection from pwSPMS visiting the neurology services of 34 hospitals during 2019?2020. Clinical data included Expanded Disability Status Scale scores, number of relapses, magnetic resonance imaging, disease-modifying treatment (DMT), symptoms, and comorbidities from 24 months before the study visit. Resource use and allied costs were collected 12 months before the study visit. Patient-reported outcomes, functional and cognitive scales were also collected.
Results: 70% of pwSPMS used primary care services, and nearly 50% needed assistance in a daycare or rehabilitation center. Almost 60% of the participants were receiving DMT at the study visit, and 80% needed support for domestic/housekeeping tasks. More than 90% were inactive at work, with nearly 80% taking early retirement. The estimated total annual cost per pwSPMS in Spain was almost €41,500, of which more than 50% (€21,400) were indirect costs, followed by direct health care costs (30%, €11,300), and, finally, direct non-health care costs (about 20%, €8,800). Older patients with severe disabilities and worse functional outcomes incurred higher costs.
Conclusions: SPMS is a major burden on health care systems, patients, and society as a whole. Health care and societal policies should be aimed at improving the SPMS care pathway and minimizing patients? funding of direct non-health care costs.},
organization = {This study was funded by Novartis Farmacéutica, S.A. The funder had the
following involvement with the study: study design, data collection and
analysis, decision to publish and preparation of the manuscript.},
publisher = {BioMed Central Ltd.},
publisher = {BMC health services research},
title = {Economic burden of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis: DISCOVER study},
author = {Oreja-Guevara, Celia and Meca-Lallana, José E. and Gómez-Estévez, Irene and Ara, José-Ramón and Hernández Pérez, Miguel Ángel and Gracia Gil, Julia and Alonso Torres, Ana María and Pilo de la Fuente, Belén and Ramió-Torrentà, Lluís and Madueño, Eichau and Gascón-Giménez, Francisco and Casanova, Bonaventura and Martínez-Yélamos, Sergio and Aguado Valcárcel, Aguado and Martínez Ginés, María Luisa and El Berdei Montero, Yasmina and López Real, Ana María and González Quintanilla, Vicente and López de Silanes, Carlos and Martínez-Rodríguez, José Enrique},
}