Background Migraine is a primary headache disorder which affects all aspects of life.
The financial burden of migraine imposed on the society might be substantial. This
study aims at estimating the economic cost of migraine in Latvia and Lithuania, including
both direct and indirect costs. Direct costs encompass the costs of migraine-related
health care resource utilization. Indirect costs are related to productivity loss,
the potential or expected earnings lost due to migraine. Methods Direct cost is assessed
by using the prevalence method, a widely used cost-of-illness approach. The prevalence
rate of migraine and the migraine-related health care resource utilization are proxied
from the literature, whereas unit cost of medical services and procedures are retrieved
from national databases and providers. For estimating the indirect cost of migraine,
we follow the human capital approach. We quantify three components of indirect costs:
reduced labour force participation, absence from work and reduced productivity while
at work. The number of unemployed migraineurs, days missed from work and days lost
due to impairment while at work are drawn from the literature. Unemployment rate and
average income in Latvia and Lithuania are then inserted to assess indirect costs.
Results We find that the mean per-person total cost of migraine is euro801 annually
in Latvia, and euro721 in Lithuania. In both countries around 30% of total cost is
direct cost; cost related to a wide array of migraine-related medical services and
interventions. The total cost of migraine is euro112.26 million in Latvia, corresponding
to 0.42% of Latvia's GDP. The total cost of migraine is euro149.62 million in Lithuania,
corresponding to 0.35% of Lithuania's GDP. In both countries two thirds of total cost
is related to lost workdays due to absenteeism and presenteeism. Conclusions The financial
burden of migraine imposed on the society is substantial in Latvia and Lithuania.
Improvements in care for patients with migraine, such as easier access to structured
headache assessment services, wider availability of various procedures and preventive
medications would significantly increase direct costs. Nevertheless, this cost increase
might be far outweighed by lower migraine-related productivity loss, especially as
the prevalence of migraine is the highest in the most productive years of life.
