ECONOMIC BURDEN OF FUNCTIONAL GASTROITESTINAL DISORDERS.

Gastrointestinal disorders represent a substantial portion of overall healthcare costs. Only some data on economic burden of these disorders has been published from developing countries. This study aimed to estimate the costs related to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), functional constipation (FC), functional diarrhea (FD), functional abdominal bloating (FAB), and unspecified-FBD (U-FBD) in Tehran province.

Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 18,180 adult persons (age>18 years) in Tehran province from May 2006 to December 2007. A valid and reliable questionnaire was used to ask symptoms of IBS, FC, FD, FAB and U-FBD, and their frequency of the utilization of health services including physician visits, hospitalizations, drugs, laboratory tests, and productivity loss due to above disorders in the past 6 months. Cost of illness per person in 6 months was estimated in purchasing power parity dollars (PPP$).

Results: According to the data, IBS was found in 166, FC in 435, FD in 49, FAB in 271 patients and U-FBD in 979. The mean 6-months total cost of IBS, FC, FD, FAB and U-FBD were around 160.05, 146.83, 42.24, 95.64 and 103.29 PPP$ per patient. Physician visit and laboratory tests were the highest and lowest direct costs supposed by the patients. Also, the most indirect costs were due to lower productivity caused low functionality.

Conclusion: IBS was the most costly disease in this study. Physician visits and hospitalization were the most dominant cost of diseases that could be minimized by enhancement of the quality of medical insurance in Iran.