Direct medical costs of polyarthritis in a pediatric hospital in Mexico.

Background: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common rheumatic disease in children. The polyarticular course (polyarthritis) represents 63-66% of patients with JIA. The aim was to determine the direct medical costs (DMC) of JIA of the polyarthritis type in pediatric patients of a tertiary hospital in Mexico.

Methods: An analysis of the disease costs was developed from the perspective of the Instituto de Seguridad Social del Estado de México y Municipios Maternal and Child Hospital (HMI). The time horizon was 12 years. All patients diagnosed with JIA with polyarticular course treated by the pediatric rheumatology service of the HMI from January to September 2022 and with an active clinical record were included. Different costing techniques were used. The cost components were consultations, medications, hospitalization, and office and laboratory studies. The costs are reported in USD 2021.

Results: Twenty-six records of patients with polyarticular arthritis from the HMI were analyzed, with a mean of 4,555.2 USD (standard deviation [SD] = 1,456.7) and a median of 3,828 USD (SD = 1,492) in the first 10 years of treatment. The components of DMC were medications (82.7%), office and laboratory studies (8.4%), hospitalization (8.0%), and consultations (1.8%). Biological disease-modifying drugs (bDMARDs) accounted for 95.3% of the drug component cost.

Conclusion: The cost of bDMARDs represented the most critical cost of polyarticular JIA, reflected in the 2^nd year of treatment. Including generic bDMARDs and reviewing purchase prices by health institutions in Mexico is necessary.