Financial burden and quality of life of informal caregivers of patients with wet age-related macular degeneration

Health Economics Review

Table 4 Total direct and direct medical costs per year in € of caregivers of privately or statutory insured patients

Visual acuity	Health insurance	N	Variable	N	Mean €	Median €	SD €	Min. €	Max. €
>0.3	Statutory	72	Direct medical costs	72	93	0	236	0	1,266
	Statutory	72	Direct total costs	72	324	106	628	0	4,370
	Private	20	Direct medical costs	20	79	28	132	0	480
	Private	20	Direct total costs	20	651	260	1,407	0	6,444
≤0.3 - >0.1	Statutory	23	Direct medical costs	23	60	3	141	0	666
	Statutory	23	Direct total costs	23	242	186	295	0	1,374
	Private	3	Direct medical costs	3	80	6	133	0	233
	Private	3	Direct total costs	3	217	186	110	126	339
≤0.1	Statutory	27	Direct medical costs	27	140	27	280	0	1,094
	Statutory	27	Direct total costs	27	672	202	1,306	10	6,658
	Private	5	Direct medical costs	5	1,258	1,367	921	265	2,529
	Private	5	Direct total costs	5	4,024	4,152	3,853	358	9,886

Caregivers of privately insured patients had more costs (p = 0.04). Despite the same visual acuity of ≤0.1 the caregiver costs of privately insured patients were six times higher, than the caregiver costs of patients with public health insurance, seen in the mean score or 20 times higher seen in the median

ISSN: 2191-1991