Cost of illness of oral lichen planus: a multicenter university hospital–based outpatient observational study

Objectives To estimate the economic costs of oral lichen planus (OLP) through a multicenter university hospital–based outpatient study conducted in Italy and Finland. Materials and methods A multicenter retrospective study was conducted on patients affected by OLP to evaluate the economic cost of managing the disease. Direct costs concerning diagnostic procedures, therapeutic management, and follow-up visits were obtained from clinical records. Statistics was performed with IBM SPSS Statistics. Results One hundred and eight patients with a confirmed diagnosis of OLP (81 women and 27 men), 58 Italians and 50 Finnish, were enrolled in this study. The mean annual cost was 1087.2 euros per patient. The mean annual cost was higher in Finnish than in Italian cohort (1558.7 euros vs. 680.7 euros—p < 0.05). Within the Italian cohort, the local immunosuppressive therapy group and atrophic and erosive OLP type had a higher cost (p < 0.05). Within the Finnish cohort, the local immunosuppressive therapy group had a higher cost (p < 0.05). Conclusions OLP-related costs are very similar to other chronic oral disorders (i.e., periodontitis) with differences between investigated countries. Moreover, patients with more severe clinical features, who need immunosuppressive therapy, are facing more expensive costs. Clinical relevance. In this multicenter cost of illness study, we estimated the direct health care costs of OLP and we found that patients with more severe clinical features, who therefore need symptomatic therapy, are facing more expensive costs.