Healthcare utilisation among patients with stress-induced exhaustion disorder treated with a multimodal rehabilitation programme – a longitudinal observational study

BACKGROUND: Stress-induced exhaustion disorder is a major challenge in Swedish working life. Despite its increase in prevalence, there is still limited knowledge about the effectiveness of different rehabilitation methods. In this study, we aim to describe the healthcare utilisation for patients with stress-induced exhaustion disorder before, during and after a multi-modal rehabilitation (MMR) programme, as well as the health-related quality of life, work ability, sick leave level and psychological measures, and their possible relations. METHODS: In this longitudinal observational study, 53 patients who were part of an MMR programme at the Stress Rehabilitation Clinic participated with survey data, and among them 43 also contributed with healthcare data. Data were collected from one year before start of MMR to one year after the end of it. The patients also answered a questionnaire at the start of, end of and at a one-year follow-up of the MMR, which included questions about health-related quality of life, work ability, clinical burnout, sick leave level, anxiety and depression. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant increase in healthcare consumption during MMR, if including visits to the Stress Rehabilitation Clinic, while it decreased if excluding such visits, when comparing with before and after MMR. During the follow-up period there was a non-statistically significant (p=0.11), but still rather large difference (15.4 compared with 12.0 visits per patient), in healthcare consumption in comparison with the period before MMR, when excluding follow-up visits at the Stress Rehabilitation Clinic. Health-related quality of life was rated as poor before MMR (mean 0.59). There was a statistically significant improvement, but values were still below normal at the end of follow-up (mean 0.70). In addition, the level of sick leave, the work ability and signs of clinical burnout improved statistically significantly after MMR, but were not fully normalised at the end of follow-up. Individual healthcare consumption was related to residual health problems. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with stress-induced exhaustion disorder have not reduced their healthcare consumption notably after MMR, and residual health problems remain for some patients. More studies are needed for a deeper understanding of the individual effectiveness of MMR, and also of its cost-effectiveness.