Coll Antropol 2009 Jun;33(2):503-8

Department of Paediatric, University Hospital Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia.

The aim was to study the direct medical cost of epilepsy in children and adolescents and to determine the impact of epilepsy type and child's age on total costs of treatment. One-year prospective, prevalence based, "bottom up" analyses of sixty-nine (69) children with epilepsy (International League Against Epilepsy criteria was used). Direct medical costs were calculated by summing annual costs of hospital care, outpatient visits and antiepileptic drug (AED) treatment. The average annual cost per patient was 1293.0 Euro. The costs of hospital admissions were 942.9 Euro (72%), followed by drug treatment 240.0 Euro (19%) and outpatient medical services 121.2 Euro (9%). The costs of epilepsy were significantly higher for children under 5 years of age. AED costs were statistically significantly lower for children who received traditional AED (Euro 122.0) than modern AED (571.2 Euro). The costs of epilepsy in children and adolescents in Croatia are congruent to those of developed countries. Costs significantly varied regarding the child's age. The cost of illness studies are an important first step towards the rational use of available resources.

Epilepsia 2001 May;42(5):641-6

DUNPI Università di Pisa-IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, Pisa, Italy.

Purpose: To determine the direct costs of epilepsy in a child neurology referral population, stratified by disease, duration, and severity, comparing three different health care settings [i.e., teaching or clinical research (CR) hospitals, general hospitals, and outpatient services]. Read More

Epilepsy Res 2002 Feb;48(3):207-16

Centro per l'Epilessia e Clinica Neurologica, Ospedale "San Gerardo", Monza, Italy.

Purpose: [corrected] Epilepsy poses a considerable economic burden on society. However, information is insufficient on the comparative costs of different disease varieties. The purpose of this study was to compare the direct costs of epilepsy in referral patients with disease of different severity and duration. Read More

Gesundheitswesen 2006 Oct;68(10):600-12

GSF-Forschungszentrum für Umwelt und Gesundheit--Institut für Gesundheitsökonomie und Management im Gesundheitswesen, Neuherberg, Germany.

Purpose: Obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2 DM) among children have increased in the last years and developed into a major public health problem in Germany. Obesity and T2 DM are important causes of morbidity among young people associated with high costs for the health system. The objective of this paper is to estimate the number of obese and diabetic children and adolescents and the associated economic burden of illness in Germany now (2003) and in the future. Read More

Epilepsia 2006 Dec;47(12):2165-72

Department of Neurology, Philipps-University, Marburg, Germany.

Purpose: There are only few studies on the costs of epilepsy in Germany. Therefore, we performed a pilot study to estimate the direct and indirect costs of refractory epilepsy in a German epilepsy center.

Methods: A "prevalence-based," cross-sectional convenience sample of adults with active epilepsy attending the outpatient clinic of our tertiary epilepsy center was evaluated. Read More