Journal of medical economics
Cure8 research brief
Why This Matters
The study shows rapidly rising IBD healthcare costs driven mainly by growing prevalence and biologic therapy spending, which can affect access, insurance coverage, and healthcare planning for people with Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis.
Who Should Pay Attention
Adult patients with IBD (especially those on biologic therapies), clinicians, health-system planners, payers, and researchers studying health economics or drug-access policy.
Study Snapshot
Story typeResearch paper
Evidence typeResearch paper
Source depthJournal abstract
What To Know
The authors used the Catalan Health Surveillance System to capture healthcare use and standardized costs for people with IBD (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis) from 2011–2024, adjusted to 2024 euros. Total IBD-related expenditures increased from €67.4M to €201.6M over that period; per-patient costs rose more modestly.
Biologic treatments were the largest contributor to overall costs, though the paper attributes some per-patient pharmaceutical cost containment to policies promoting biosimilar use.
The study also reports differing trends by diagnosis: Crohn’s disease patients had higher per-capita costs, mean per-patient biologic costs decreased for Crohn’s but increased for ulcerative colitis. The authors used an autoregressive integrated moving average model to forecast costs to 2036, estimating total expenditure of about €319.0M by 2036.
Keep In Mind
Findings are from a Catalonia public-health database and use standardized cost rules and CPI adjustment; cost forecasts are model-based and should be interpreted as projections. The extraction is partial and grounded in the article abstract.
Source Details
Review the original publication for the complete reporting, methods, and context.
Research paper
Evidence type derived from source or registry metadata.
PublicationJournal of medical economics
AuthorsBelén Garcia-Sagué, Eduard Brunet-Mas, Emili Vela +12 more
Study typeJournal article
Indexed viaPubMed
Source typeResearch paper
PublishedJul 3, 2026, 12:00 AM
Content availableJournal abstract
This Cure8 brief is based on source text from the linked article. Cure8 is informational only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
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