The first results from the research into how we could estimate the economic cost of migraine in Aotearoa New Zealand have been published in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
The review, led by Migraine Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand co-founder Fiona Imlach in her role as Senior Research Fellow at University of Otago Wellington, found serious gaps in the data that would be needed for a migraine cost-of-illness study.
Although NZ has adequate, but not gold-standard, data on migraine prevalence, there were no appropriate data on the work-related impacts of migraine, which are known to cause the largest costs to individuals and society. Information on health costs was also limited, with the major limitations being no records on the number or cost of visits to primary care and emergency departments for migraine and out-of-pocket costs for over-the-counter and unfunded medication, private specialist visits, complementary and other therapies.
Without a comprehensive accounting of these costs, any study into the cost of migraine in NZ will significantly understate the true cost and burden.
The authors outline options for going forward – from new data collections to plug the existing data gaps, exploring administrative datasets and reviewing and adapting overseas estimates of our missing costs. Health economists who want to pick up this work, please get in touch!
This work was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand.
