Cost of first management of inflammatory bowel disease

Objectives - The aim of this study was to assess the cost of the first mana gement of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) from the onset of first symptoms until 6 weeks after the diagnosis. This cost was calculated in French fran cs (FF) for all IBD and namely for Crohn's disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), and ulcerative proctitis (UP). Material and methods - Data concerning 258 patients were collected by the m ean of a standardized questionnaire from 3 different sources: the patient, his general practitioner and his gastroenterologist. Results - Two hundred and fifty eight patients were included: 144 CD (55.8% ), 76 UC (29.5%), 30 UP (11.6%), and 8 chronic unclassifiable colitis (CUC) (3.1%). The mean direct costs of the diagnosis (m+/-SD) were 23 116 +/- 40 820 FF for CD, 10 628 +/- 17316 FF for UC and 3 451 +/- 2 743 FF for UP. A lthough unplanned hospitalizations occurred in only 38% of the patients (98 /258), they represented the 3/4 of the mean costs: 78.2% for CD and 64% for UC. Indirect costs generated by days off work were 4 719 +/- 6 610 FF for Co, 2 996 +/- 6 897 FF for UC and 1 230 +/- 3 622 FF for UP. Conclusion - The first management of a patient with CD was twice more expen sive than the one with UC and 6.5 times than the one with UP.