Direct and indirect costs of fibromyalgia: a scoping review

Abstract

Objective: To identify the direct and indirect medical costs of patients with fibromyalgia (FM), as well as to elucidate the health resources used. Methods: A scoping review was carried out in the Medline/PubMed, SciELO and Lilacs databases, with the inclusion criteria of publications dealing with the costs of FM, published since 2009, available electronically in full, in Portuguese, English or Spanish. The searches were carried out between February 2019 and April 2021. Results: 124 articles were identified, of which nine were selected. The selected studies were developed in Europe (n=5), North America (n=3) and Asia (n=1). The number of participants in the studies ranged from 57 to 2.098, with a greater predominance of female patients and mean age ranging from 42,6 to 55,2 years. The average of comorbidities was 2,4 to 4,9 per patient, with a time of diagnosis ranging from 4,3 to 6,9 years. The average number of medical consultations ranged from 4,68 to 23,3 per patient/year, with direct annual costs, converted for the year 2021, from U$ 925,62 to U $ 8.116,59, representing 10,5% to 37,6% of the total cost figures. The annual average of indirect costs ranged from U$ 7.274,98 to U$ 32.294,87 representing 62,4% to 89,5% of the total costs. Conclusion: The direct costs identified reflected a panorama of the care model adopted by the countries that composed this research and we identified a greater overhead of indirect costs in relation to the total costs per patient, demonstrating a greater impact on the community.