title: Cost-of-illness of patients with contact dermatitis in Denmark.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Contact dermatitis is a frequent occupational and non-occupational skin disease.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effects of contact dermatitis on labour market affiliation and societal costs in terms of healthcare costs and production loss.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 21 441 patients patch tested either in hospital departments or at dermatological clinics in the period 2004-2009 were included in the study. The analyses were stratified by children (age 0-15 years), occupational contact dermatitis (age 16-65 years), and non-occupational dermatitis (age ≥ 16 years). Controls were selected from a 30% random sample of the population. Individual encrypted data were retrieved on healthcare utilization, socio-demographics, education, labour market affiliation and transfer payments from public registers in Denmark for cases and controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Attributable healthcare costs for 4 years prior to patch testing (1 year for children) and the year after patch testing were €959 for children, €724 for occupational contact dermatitis, and €1794 for non-occupational dermatitis. Productivity costs for the same period were €10 722 for occupational contact dermatitis and €3074 for non-occupational contact dermatitis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The main findings of this study were that there were statistically significant attributable healthcare costs for both children and adults, and statistically significant productivity loss for adults.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Applied Health Services Research and Technology Assessment, University of Southern Denmark, 5000, Odense C, Denmark.
authors.forename: Bjørn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Saetterstrøm
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Olsen
authors.forename: Jeanne Duus
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Johansen
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D017449:Dermatitis, Allergic Contact / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology; D009783:Dermatitis, Occupational / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: atopic dermatitis; contact dermatitis; dermatitis; eczema; healthcare costs; labour market affiliation; occupational contact dermatitis; productivity costs