BCN HEALTH publishes a study evaluating the hospital incidence and medical costs of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy in Spain

BCN HEALTH has published the study ‘Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy in Spain: a retrospective analysis of hospital incidence and medical costs’ in the journal ‘Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research, an international journal publishing rigorously peer-reviewed articles on several aspects of pharmacoeconomics.

BCN HEALTH conducted a retrospective study based on the records of patients hospitalized due to chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and treated in Spanish public and private hospitals between January of 2004 and December of 2018. The objective of this study was to evaluate the incidence of the disease at the hospital level and to calculate the associated medical costs.

Data corresponding to 2,805 individual patients was analyzed. Patients’ median age was 60 years, with a majority of males (65%). Several comorbidities were registered, including hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and diabetes. The hospitalization rate was 12 cases per 100,000 patients in 2018. The total number of hospital admissions associated to chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy increased significantly over the study period.

Patients under 18 years of age registered a greater number of urgent visits and a higher readmission rate at 30 days than patients over 18 years of age. Mean length of hospital stay was 8 days and mean admission cost was €3953, increasing over the study period. Consequently, the total hospital cost associated to the disease increased significantly over the study period. The total annual cost of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy in Spain at the hospital level was €1.8 million.