Journal of Clinical & Experimental Dermatology Research
Open Access
ISSN: 2155-9554
ISSN: 2155-9554
Irmina Maria Michalek and Swen Malte John
University of Tampere, Finland
University of Osnabrueck, Germany
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Clin Exp Dermatol Res
Psoriasis is a chronic, noncommunicable disease, affecting individuals all over the world, with no predilection for sex. There is a need for good quality epidemiological and economic data to better understand the dimension of the problem and plan health care expenditure. The Polish National Health Fund (PNHF) is a universal, multi-payer statutory health care system, covering most citizens. The purpose of this study is to describe and assess prevalence of psoriasis in Poland, the health care utilization pattern and costs for this group. The cohort consisted of 190,258 patients who had 1 or more claims for psoriasis (ICD-10 code L40) during the study period (January 2015 - December 2015) and was obtained from the database of the PNHF. In 2015, the database covered 33,594,006 individuals (87.4% of Polish citizens). The national prevalence of psoriasis was 0.57%. The main component of the total 1-year cost of health care services paid by PNHF was inpatient cost $3,004,626. The outpatient cost was $6,103,907. The above-mentioned expenditures made up 0.07% and 0.21% of the total 1-year PNHF expenditure for inpatient and outpatient services, respectively. The mean hospital stay per hospitalized patient per year was 10.86 days. The costs of sickness benefit paid both by the Polish Social Insurance Institution and employers was $3,014,621. The mean duration of the sick leave was 13.32 days. This is the first study in Europe to assess the prevalence of psoriasis in such a big cohort. The prevalence of psoriasis among Polish patients is considerably low in contrast to other European studies. Nevertheless, the economic burden of psoriasis is significant in Poland. Further research is needed to assess the influence of the health care utilization pattern and legitimacy of health care expenditures on patient outcomes.
Irmina Maria Michalek graduated from the Medical University of Warsaw, Poland as a Medical Doctor. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Tampere, Finland. Her research focuses on epidemiology and prevention of cancer. She is the Lead Author of the WHO Global Report on Psoriasis. She has worked with international experts and external contributors and representatives from patients’ organizations to get this major work done in time. She was also the Lead Author of “A Systematic Review of Worldwide Epidemiology of Psoriasis” which was published in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. She is a member of the EU Horizon 2020 COST Action TD1206 (“Development and Implementation of European Standards on Prevention of Occupational Skin Diseases; StanDerm”), European Society for Dermatological Research and European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.