Cost of low back pain in Switzerland in 2005
Wieser, Simon ; Horisberger, Bruno ; Schmidhauser, Sara ; Eisenring, Claudia ; Brügger, Urs ; Ruckstuhl, Andreas ; Dietrich, Jürg ; Mannion, Anne ; Elfering, Achim ; Tamcan, Özgür ; Müller, Urs
In: The European Journal of Health Economics, 2011, vol. 12, no. 5, p. 455-467
Zum persönliche Liste hinzufügen- Summary
- Low back pain (LBP) is the most prevalent health problem in Switzerland and a leading cause of reduced work performance and disability. This study estimated the total cost of LBP in Switzerland in 2005 from a societal perspective using a bottom-up prevalence-based cost-of-illness approach. The study considers more cost categories than are typically investigated and includes the costs associated with a multitude of LBP sufferers who are not under medical care. The findings are based on a questionnaire completed by a sample of 2,507 German-speaking respondents, of whom 1,253 suffered from LBP in the last 4weeks; 346 of them were receiving medical treatment for their LBP. Direct costs of LBP were estimated at €2.6billion and direct medical costs at 6.1% of the total healthcare expenditure in Switzerland. Productivity losses were estimated at €4.1billion with the human capital approach and €2.2billion with the friction cost approach. Presenteeism was the single most prominent cost category. The total economic burden of LBP to Swiss society was between 1.6 and 2.3% of GDP