Health care costs of incident ADHD in children and adolescents in Germany - A claims data analysis within the framework of the consortium project INTEGRATE-ADHD.

Background

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with increased costs for the family, the health care system and the society. Previous cost-of-illness studies in Germany usually focused on prevalent ADHD. This study addressed the research gap on health care resource utilisation and costs of children and adolescents with incident ADHD diagnosis using nationwide claims data from the statutory health insurance DAK-Gesundheit.

Methods

A matched-control design (propensity score matching, 1:3 ratio) was used to examine the health care costs of incident ADHD patients compared with a non-ADHD control group, considering an observation period of four quarters. Besides bivariate statistics, multivariate analyses of total costs were used to consider relevant covariates.

Results

Total health care costs for children and adolescents with ADHD in the first year after diagnosis exceeded those of the control group by € 1,505.3. According to the multivariate analysis, the group with incident ADHD had significantly higher (2.86-fold) health care costs when compared with non-ADHD peers. Sensitivity analyses proved these findings. In addition, the analyses identified children's age and comorbidity index to be significantly associated with increased costs.

Conclusions

ADHD in children and adolescents is associated with a significant economic burden. The results emphasise the need for social awareness, prevention, appropriate treatment and research efforts.

Informations de copyright

© Robert Koch Institute. All rights reserved unless explicitly granted.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Conflicts of interest Peter Heuschmann lists the following research grants and contracts with organisations and institutions for the past 36 months: German Ministry of Research and Education; European Union; German Parkinson Society; University Hospital Würzburg; German Heart Foundation; Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) within the Innovation Fund; German Research Foundation; Bavarian State; German Cancer Aid; Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (within Mondafis; supported by an unrestricted research grant to the Charité from Bayer); University Göttingen (within FIND-AF randomized; supported by an unrestricted research grant to the University Göttingen from Boehringer-Ingelheim); University Hospital Heidelberg (within RASUNOA-prime; supported by an unrestricted research grant to the University Hospital Heidelberg from Bayer, BMS, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Daiichi Sankyo). Marcel Romanos is a board member of the national self-help organisation ADHS Deutschland e.V. All other authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.