OBJECTIVES Juvenile and adolescent idiopathic scoliosis are a major cause of morbidity in developing and in industrialized regions. The aim of our study was to calculate the annual health insurance treatment cost of juvenile and adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in Hungary.

METHODS The data were derived from the financial database of the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration (NHIFA), the only health care financing agency in Hungary. We analyzed the number of patients and the health insurance treatment cost for the year 2017. The following cost categories were included into the study: out-patient care, laboratory diagnostics, medical imaging, acute in-patient care, chronic in-patient care and drugs. Patients with juvenile and adolescent idiopathic scoliosis were identified with the following codes of the International Classification of Diseases 10^threvision: M41.1.

RESULTS The number of patients admitted to inpatient care was 605 (72.1 % women and 27.9 % men) with a mean age of 19.66 years (women: 20.64 years; men: 17.12 years). Number of patients underwent out-patient hospital care was 22,207 (64.4 % women and 35.6 % men) with a mean age of 15.74 years (women: 16.22 years; men: 14.96 years). For the treatment of patients with juvenile and adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in 2017 the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration spent 402.6 billion Hungarian Forint (HUF) which equals 1.3 million Euros (EUR) or 1.46 million American Dollars (USD). Major cost drivers were acute inpatient care (46.8 % of total health insurance costs), outpatient care (41.13 %)and chronic inpatient care (11.6 %).

CONCLUSIONS Juvenile and adolescent idiopathic scoliosis represent a significant burden for the Hungarian health insurance system. The disease is more common in women (64-72 %) compared to men. There is no significant difference (1-3 years) in the onset of the disease between women and men, although crude data showed that men are affected in slightly younger age.