OBJECTIVES: The present study aims to assess direct non-health costs for formal and informal assistance as well as indirect costs among patients with Behçet syndrome (BS) in Italy focusing also on the evaluation of gender and age differences.

METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among adult BS patients in Italy using an ad-hoc developed questionnaire whose aim was to investigate several dimensions related to BS including also resources used related to direct and indirect costs. Costs for formal and informal assistance, productivity losses were estimated respectively using the proxy-good method and the human capital approach and referred to 2022. We analysed costs with a two-part model using a probit model for the first part and a gamma distribution and log link in the second part. All models were adjusted for age, gender, years since diagnosis and education level.

RESULTS: A total of 207 patients answered the survey. The majority of patients (55%, 114/207) declared they need help for homework and daily activities with median estimated cost for formal and informal assistance over 12-months being 230.3€[0-702.1]. A total of 131 patients (63.3%) declared themselves to be workers while 8.2% (17/207) were unable to work because of BS. Among workers, median working days lost were 28 per year and median costs associated to productivity loss over a year were 1381.2€[0-2,417.1]. Results from regression models suggested that costs for productivity loss were significantly lower among males (β=-0.531(0.213), p-value=0.013) and increased with age (β=0.315(0.106), p-value=0.003); males were also less likely to incur in costs for formal and informal assistance (β=-1.081(0.254), p-value<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: Results from the present study help quantifying costs for daily assistance and those related to productivity losses among BS patients in Italy and they also suggest that costs for informal care and productivity losses may disproportionately affect females and older patients.