The burden of arthritis and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory treatment - A European literature review

The purpose of this literature review is to summarise data available from p ublications describing the burden of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthriti s in Europe, and to highlight gaps in the literature. On the basis of exten sive Literature research, the epidemiology of arthritis, its treatment cost s, and iatrogenic costs related to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSA ID) treatments are described, differentiating results by country. The revie w shows that, as well as having a significant impact on healthcare budgets, arthritis also affects patients and caregivers. For those countries where data were available, indirect costs were found to be of comparable magnitud e to direct costs. Additionally, it was found that the iatrogenic costs rel ated to the treatment of NSAID-induced adverse events are a significant com ponent of the total costs of arthritis. The number of publications on the b urden of arthritis in Europe is rather small in comparison with what is ava ilable for the US. Comparison of national results shows wide variations bet ween countries, which may be partly due to discrepancies in the methodology applied to estimate the burden of arthritis, the cost items included in th e analysis, and the data sources used to gather cost information. Additiona lly, comparing the burden of arthritis by country across Europe is difficul t because of the variety of ways in which results are presented, e.g. on a per-patient basis, or for the whole population. To better understand the bu rden of illness of arthritis in Europe, not only is more research required, but the methodology to be applied in burden-of-illness analyses must also be standardised.