Abstract
At present different kinds of dementia impose a significant economic burden on the whole societies. Parkinson's disease is the second most common type of dementia.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the costs of people suffering from Parkinson's disease in the context of public expenditure needs for the affected people. Firstly, the treatment costs and care in the selected European countries are analyzed, and secondly, these data are compared with the data from other countries and continents.
The focus is not only on the developed economies where the issue of costs and PD already causes significant expenditure from public budgets, but also on the developing economies. The methods applied in this study include a method of literature search of available sources describing the costs of PD and a qualitative comparative analysis method.
The findings show that the data from the European countries range between 1,949 EUR and 12,054 EUR. Comparable data are in the USA at 17,064 EUR, in Australia at 7,020 EUR and in Asia they range between 649 EUR and 9,544 EUR.
These values are certainly connected not only with the available data, but also with the level and possibilities of healthcare services in these countries. In addition, GDP for these continents and countries was specified and the cost ratio of patient with respect to GHD per capita was described.
This calculation provides an orientation relative indicator about the economic burden with respect to the country's development. The results indicate that the most significant issues are diseases and treatment in the European countries in which their highest incidence is expected in future.