Study Identifies Significant Costs for Individuals with Vitiligo

By Joe Gorelick, MSN, FNP-C

Patients with vitiligo incur significantly higher healthcare costs than people without the skin condition, a new study published in Journal of Investigative Dermatology shows.

In addition to direct costs that may be associated with managing vitiligo–medical fees, pharmacy expenses, sunscreens, protective clothing, cosmetic concealers, and camouflage products—indirect costs like psychosocial effects, loss of work productivity, and lost opportunities (e.g., marriage, career choice, promotions, salary increases, or education) may also affect patients with the disease.

It is important for prescribers to be aware of this financial burden when diagnosing and treating patients with vitiligo. In particular, we finally have an approved topical agent as well as light therapies that can provide treatment benefit. Oral/systemic agents are currently under investigation for the treatment of Vitiligo that may provide additional therapeutic benefit.

“Patients with vitiligo are often reported to have psychological problems, such as depression, anxiety, and shame, leading to low self-esteem and social isolation,” says lead investigator Khaled Ezzedine, MD, PhD, Department of Dermatology, AP-HP, Henri Mondor University Hospital, and Epidemiology in Dermatology and Evaluation of Therapeutics (EpiDermE) – EA 7379, Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC). “Higher costs for patients with vitiligo than for persons without it may partly be explained by a higher risk of mental health conditions as well as other comorbidities among patients with vitiligo, including thyroid disease, diabetes, and alopecia areata that impact the cost of the disease.”

For the retrospective cohort analysis, researchers compared data from Merative MarketScan Commercial Database, healthcare costs, and healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) for 49,512 patients with vitiligo and 99,024 people without vitiligo in the US between January 2007 and December 2021.

Outcomes included all-cause and vitiligo-related costs (2021 dollars) and all-cause HCRU, including mental health-related HCRU. Patients with vitiligo incurred significantly higher all-cause costs ($15,551 vs $7,735) and vitiligo-related costs ($3,490 vs $54) costs than controls. Mental health-related HCRU was also significantly higher among patients with vitiligo. Taken together, healthcare costs and HCRU were significantly higher among patients with vitiligo than among controls.

Increased costs were found to be associated with significantly higher inpatient costs, ER visits, ambulatory visits, number of prescriptions and prescriptions costs, and other costs (e.g., medical equipment and home healthcare). The economic burden of vitiligo was comparable with that of other well-studied dermatologic conditions, such as atopic dermatitis and psoriasis.