Crohn's Disease: Quality of Life and Costs

ABSTRACT

Crohn's disease is a chronic disorder that specifically affects the alimentary tract but broadly affects the physical and psychosocial lifestyles. Laboratory or endoscopic testing and clinical health indices that ignored the patient's life quality were traditionally used to monitor outcomes of medical and surgical therapy. Accordingly, health-related quality-of-life assessment was proposed and has assumed an important role in the care and study of patients with Crohn's disease. This advance in quality measurement has been welcomed by the third-party payers and managed care plans that are faced with escalating medical care costs and hence demand improved care quality, objective measurement of life quality, and documentation of patient satisfaction. These providers are also interested in the cost of therapy, and they desire to determine whether the health benefit justifies the additional expense. As new treatments are developed, society will require consideration of the modality's clinical effectiveness, impact on life quality, and cost.

KEYWORD

Crohn's disease - quality of life - costs

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