Direct costs for allergic diseases range from 1800 to 6600 euros per patient per year.

Allergic diseases represent a cost of between €1,823 and €6,656 per patient per year when only direct healthcare-related costs are taken into account, according to a study of data collected through the European Registry promoted by the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. EAAKI).

“Allergic diseases and asthma are among the most common chronic diseases worldwide and represent a significant global health burden. However, their real impact is difficult to assess due to the lack of representativeness and incompleteness of the available data,” explains the president of the EAACI research center. and the Information Committee (ROC) of Ioan Agache.

For this reason, the European Society, in collaboration with national scientific societies in the specialty of allergy, launched the HEAD (Health Economics and Allergic Diseases) registry, which began collecting data in May 2022. There are currently 778 adults registered. and children with one or more of the following conditions: allergic rhinitis, asthma, atopic dermatitis, food allergies, drug allergies, and chronic urticaria.

The study began with two aims: to describe patterns of care for allergy and asthma in Europe and to assess their impact in terms of health care resource use, societal costs, and from the perspective of patients and their families. disability and personal expenses.

The mean total costs per patient per year ranged from €1823.19 to €6656.85, and indirect costs ranged from €1394.976 to €516.05. Direct costs are calculated taking into account hospitalizations (from 177.05 to 890.85 euros), emergency care (29.18-154.48 euros) and costs of specialized care (223.29-475.38 euros), primary care ( 27.61-137.32 euros), for psychological assistance (4.85-136.84 euros), the cost of diagnostic tests (21.27-82.48 euros) and treatment (106.23-470.65 euros).

Allergic diseases also had indirect costs, such as individual patient costs for consultation (from 50.85 to 183.79 euros), medications (from 416.94 to 1093.66 euros), transport (44.15 to 218.51 euros) , private insurance costs (61.79 and 298.99 euros). and environmental control (99.33 and 955.23 euros). On average, adult patients lost 2.68 to 5.33 days of work, children lost 14.88 to 24.09 days of school, and their families lost 3.99 to 23.35 days. “According to this study, the significant burden that allergic diseases create in terms of cost and disability requires immediate action to improve their treatment,” Agache said.