ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Costing studies are needed to identify the resources used for treatment and inform payers of the costs incurred. The objectives were to determine the costs of diagnosing and treating atopic dermatitis, food allergy and asthma, and to compare the share of costs to society and to the family during the first two years of life. STUDY DESIGN: The data were obtained from an ongoing mother-infant nutrition study. The sample comprised 60 infants who developed allergic disease by the age of 24 months and 56 healthy infants with no allergic disease. METHODS: The costs included diagnosis and treatment of the allergy, disability allowances, travel expenses and time spent by parents. RESULTS: The median costs per infant were 275 (range 94-1306) for atopic dermatitis, 1408 (163-5408) for asthma, 3182 (628-11195) for food allergy, and 10 (0-619) for the healthy infants due to the suspicion of allergic disease. The highest costs in atopic dermatitis were caused by primary care visits, topical treatments, travel costs and parents' time, and those for food allergy by hospital out-patient care, infant formulae for cow's milk allergy, disability allowances and travel costs. The families paid 43% of the costs arising from atopic dermatitis, 13.6% of those from food allergy and 16.5% of those from asthma. CONCLUSIONS: Cow's milk allergy emerged as the most expensive allergic disease, especially for the society, and concurrent asthma in particular further increased the costs.
Subject(s)
Asthma/economics , Cost of Illness , Dermatitis, Atopic/economics , Food Hypersensitivity/economics , Asthma/diagnosis , Asthma/therapy , Child, Preschool , Dermatitis, Atopic/diagnosis , Dermatitis, Atopic/therapy , Female , Finland , Food Hypersensitivity/diagnosis , Food Hypersensitivity/therapy , Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Male , Milk Hypersensitivity/diagnosis , Milk Hypersensitivity/economics , Milk Hypersensitivity/therapy , Prospective StudiesABSTRACT
AIM: To evaluate quality of life (QOL) in infants with atopic dermatitis (AD) by comparison with healthy infants to find treatment modalities contributing most to QOL in these patients. METHODS: The population (N=134) was recruited in the context of an on-going prospective mother-infant study. QOL was measured using the Infant Dermatitis Quality of Life Index for the infants with AD and a modification of this for the healthy infants. RESULTS: The index scores of infants with AD were 4.15 (SD 2.96), 3.89 (SD 3.62) and 3.23 (SD 2.71) at 6, 12 and 24 months, respectively, the QOL being significantly poorer at 6 (p<0.001) and 12 (p=0.01) months compared to healthy infants. The principal impairments were itching, scratching and sleep disturbances at 6 and 12 months and treatment difficulties at 6 months. Problems with getting to sleep were reported at all stages irrespective of AD. CONCLUSIONS: Simple treatment regimens targeting itching in particular are likely to contribute most to the QOL of infants with AD; however, sleeping problems may remain as an age-related phenomenon. Early detection of symptoms and effective parent guidance contributed to the well-being of the child.
