THE COST OF RHEUMATOID-ARTHRITIS

This paper uses the Cost of Illness (COI) framework to estimate the co st of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to society in the year 1992/93. By doi ng so, a clear insight is given into the many cost elements of RA trea tment and monitoring. This paper estimates point prevalence rates of 2 .06 and 6.94/1000 persons at risk for men and women, respectively, sho wing that prevalence is three times higher amongst women than men. Fur ther to this, prevalence increases with age in both sexes, resulting i n very high prevalence rates for RA amongst the elderly. The total eco nomic impact of RA in England was estimated to be pound 1.256 billion in 1992, of which 52% was a result of production loss caused by RA dis ability.