title: Economic burden and quality of life of vulvodynia in the United States.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the economic burden and quality of life of vulvodynia in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a web-based survey from 2009 to 2010. Patients who responded to a National Vulvodynia Association advertisement completed the survey every month, recording their own costs and their employers' payments related to vulvodynia in the previous month. A total of 302 patients entered data for at least 1 month and among them, 97 patients had completed data for 6 months. We used multiple imputation to generate values for unobserved cost components. For insurance payments, we also extracted the average insurance payments for direct healthcare services relating to vulvodynia from a commercial insurance database. The total costs were disaggregated into direct healthcare costs, direct non-healthcare costs and indirect costs. We also assessed patients' quality of life by using Euro QOL 5 dimensions (EQ-5D) in a follow-up survey.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total costs in 6 months were $8862.40 per patient, of which $6043.34 (68.19%) were direct healthcare costs, $553.81 (6.25%) were direct non-healthcare costs and $2265.25 (25.56%) were indirect costs. Based on the reported prevalence range of 3-7% in the US, our analysis yielded an annual national burden ranging from $31 to $72 billion in the US. However, the estimate should be viewed with caution as our study sample was non-probability. The average EQ-5D score was 0.74 ± 0.19 in vulvodynia patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Vulvodynia is associated with a huge economic burden to both individuals and society. It is also related to a relatively low quality of life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA.
authors.forename: Yiqiong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Lizheng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Christin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Veasley
authors.forename: Crystal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dade
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D056650:Vulvodynia / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy