Parkinson's Disease - Costs

Parkinson’s disease (PD) mainly affects the elderly. The number of patients is continually growing due to the ageing of the population. Considering the rising expenses for the health-care, it is therefore likely that health economic research will increasingly provide a decision-making framework. In the context of Parkinson's disease, decision-makers in Europe have little current information on optimal strategies for allocating resources in this area. Only a few studies for PD have been presented:

• USA: $ 14.3 billion (Whetten-Goldstein et al. 1997)
• Germany: $ 1.0 billion (Dodel et al. 1998)
• France: $ 411 million (LePen et al. 1999)
• UK: $ 280 million (Haycock et al. 1995)
• Sweden: $ 136 million (Hagell et al. 2002)

The lack of significant, more recent studies is in contrast to other neurological diseases, where detailed economic data are available.