Frequency of Health Care Resource Utilization and Direct Medical Costs Associated with Psoriatic Arthritis in a Rheumatic Care Center in Colombia

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the frequency of health care resource utilization and direct medical costs associated with Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) in a rheumatic care center in Colombia. METHODS: A retrospective prevalence-based cost of illness study under the Colombian health care system perspective was conducted. We analyzed the frequency of health care resource utilization and estimated direct medical costs using anonymized medical records of adult patients (≥18 years) diagnosed with PsA at a rheumatology care center in Bogotá, Colombia. Patients were required to have at least one medical visit linked to a PsA diagnosis (ICD-10 L40.5) between October 2018 and October 2019 and a previous diagnose by the CASPAR criteria. Data on hospitalization episodes was not available. Direct medical costs were estimated in Colombian pesos (COP) and reported in US dollars (USD) using an exchange rate of 1USD = 3263.4 COP. A multivariate generalized linear model was used for identifying potential cost predictors. RESULTS: A sample of 83 patients was obtained. Of these, 54.2% were women and had a mean (SD) age of 58.7 (12) years at baseline. On average, they had 2.2 and 3.8 medical visits to the dermatologist and rheumatologist in the study period. The total direct medical cost was estimated at 410,985 US Dollars. Medical visits, therapies, laboratory and imaging represented 3.2% of total expenses and medications the remaining 96.8%. Patients receiving conventional DMARDs (cDMARDs) had an associated mean cost of 1020.1 USD (CI 701.4–1338.8) in a year. Among patients treated with cDMARDs and biological DMARDs (bDMARDs) the mean cost increase to 8113.9 USD (SD 5182.0–95% CI 6575.1–9652.8). CONCLUSION: A patient under biological therapy can increase their annual cost by 7.9 times the cost of a patient in conventional therapy. This provided updated knowledge on the direct medical costs, from the provision of a rheumatic care center service, to support epidemiologic or pharmacovigilance models.