Economic Evaluations in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Abstract

This chapter shows a historical description of approaches to economic evaluation in SLE, both at national and international framework and highlighting the main elements that must be considered in clinical practice and decisions to avoid increasing the economic burden of health care. A non-systematic review of all published literature in English, French and Spanish from 1990 to April 2011 was performed using Medline, Pubmed, Cochrane, Lilacs and Scielo in peer-reviewed articles, including the Mesh-terms of systemic lupus erythematosus, direct costs, indirect and intangible cost, economic impact, disease burden, Cost-of-illness (COI) studies, pharmacoeconomics analysis, cost-effectiveness and costutility. It will have three types of approaches: the economic impact of the disease, COI studies and finally, a complete pharmacoeconomic assessment.