Susanne Mayer|Jonah Spickschen|K. Viktoria Stein|Richard Crevenna|Thomas Dörner|Judit Simon
The societal costs of chronic pain and its determinants: The case of Austria
Medical University of Vienna|Medical University of Vienna|International Foundation for Integrated Care|Medical University of Vienna|Medical University of Vienna|Ludwig Boltzmann Institute Applied Diagnostics|Medical University of Vienna
chronic pain among burdensome conditions prevalence ranges 12 30 europe estimated 21 among austrian adults economic impact chronic pain societal perspective however sufficiently researched study aims provide estimate societal costs workingage adults chronic pain austria explores impact sex number pain sites selfreported pain severity health literacy private health insurance costs associated chronic paina bottomup costofillness study conducted based data collected 54 adult patients chronic pain three viennese hospital outpatient departments information healthcare costs including outofpocket expenses productivity losses due absenteeism informal care collected 12 months resource use estimates combined unit costs mean costs per patient calculated year 2016mean annual societal costs estimated eur 10191 direct medical costs eur 5725 including eur 1799 outofpocket expenses mainly pain relieving activities private therapy productivity losses including informal care amounted eur 4466 total costs women patients three pain sites significantly higher association health literacy found tendency towards higher outofpocket expenses patients complementary private health insurancethis study first provide comprehensive assessment individual societal burden chronic pain austria highlights chronic pain associated substantial direct medical costs productivity losses patient costs may show systematic differences health insurance status implying need future research area