OBJECTIVES: Thyroid eye disease (TED) is a rare debilitating disease associated with significant morbidity. The aim of this study was to assess the cost of illness of TED in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

METHODS: A cost of illness model was developed to evaluate the economic burden of TED over a 1-5 years’ time horizon. The model employed a bottom-up, prevalence-based approach. Clinical and economic data were collected from local experts through targeted structured questionnaires included direct and indirect costs from public payers and societal perspectives. Direct medical costs were retrieved from national insurance for outpatient visits, medications, laboratory tests, imaging, and surgery costs. Indirect costs included absenteeism and productivity loss based on the experts’ inputs. Through extrapolation of cost and prevalence data, the economic burden was calculated.

RESULTS: With an estimated prevalence of 1500 patients in the UAE distributed among active mild to moderate disease, moderate to severe disease, and very severe cases (Sight threatening). Disease severity had varying levels of impact on total cost directly and indirectly. The annual costs per patient was AED 102,156, AED 244,188, and AED 260,587 (active mild to moderate, moderate to severe disease, and very severe cases, respectively). Over 5 years with diseases transition, average costs per patient was AED 959,145 with moderate to severe disease. Indirect costs accounted over 56.3-59.5% of the overall costs from the total patients with active moderate to severe and severe to very severe cases. By extrapolating costs based on prevalence rate of moderate to severe cases, the overall projected costs were between AED 428.9 million and AED 564.1 million over 5 years.

CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study assessing the economic burden of TED in the UAE. The findings postulate the considerable disease burden and provide valuable insights into key cost drivers.