Hospitalizations, renal activity and damage incur the highest medical costs among Filipino patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

ABSTRACT

Introduction@#Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) predominantly affects individuals at peak age of productivity, and medical costs negatively impact on personal, family and community resources. This study aimed to identify annual medical costs and cost predictors among Filipino SLE patients.@*Methods@#Direct annual healthcare costs were determined by survey questionnaires conducted among patients aged > 18 years with minimum one-year illness duration, consecutively seen at the lupus clinics of University of Santo Tomas (UST) Hospital from February to July 2016. Excluded were costs related to biologics. Predictors of cost were estimated using multiple regression analysis.@*Results@#Respondents included 300 SLE patients, 270 females, (94%) age range 11-62 years, mean age 32.84±9.89 at SLE diagnosis, mean disease duration 5.87±5.58 (1-36) years. Median and mean annual direct medical cost was Php 90,950 and Php 133,040 respectively (range Php 17,440859,050). Annual cost was higher in those requiring dialysis (n=16) compared to those not requiring dialysis (n=150) vs those without nephritis (n=134), (median Php 595,400 vs 144,700 vs 55,020 respectively), p<0.001. End stage renal disease (ESRD) (p<0.001), mycophenolate use (p<0.001), high frequency of clinic visits (p=0.016) and lupus-related hospitalizations (p=0.018) were independent variables which significantly contributed to annual costs.@*Conclusion@#Nephritis especially if requiring dialysis was the most important cost predictor in this cohort, increasing annual costs to seven-fold. Mycophenolate use, lupusrelated hospitalizations and clinic visits increased annual costs by 147.2%, 173.8% and 2.6% respectively. This study reinforces the need for early recognition and aggressive disease control to prevent complications especially in those with renal involvement.