WERF commences its third international study: EndoCost
31 AUGUST 2009
The World Endometriosis Research Foundation (WERF) has raised sufficient funds to commence the first ever prospective study to assess the direct and indirect cost of endometriosis to society and to women with the disease.
The aim of the EndoCost study is to calculate the costs of endometriosis from a societal perspective. For this purpose, a prospective, prevalence-based, cost-of-illness study has been set up to collect cost data using a bottom-up approach.
This approach will be combined with a retrospective assessment of endometriosis-related cost and endometriosis-related impact on quality of life in all participating women.
The study, which involves 13 centres in 10 countries, will calculate the level of endometriosis costs, elicit the most important drivers of endometriosis costs, and identify factors that influence the level of endometriosis costs, through specifically developed, and validated, questionnaires.
The hypothesis is that results from this study will be fundamental in justifying significant investment in endometriosis research due to the socio-economic aspect of the disease alone.
The EndoCost study will be the first ever to investigate the direct and indirect cost, at a societal and personal level. We hope the results will spur national governments on to take endometriosis seriously andto invest in research to prevent the next generation of women having to suffer during the prime of their lives the way this generation has
said WERF chief executive, Lone Hummelshoj.
Results are expected to be available during the first half of 2011.
EndoCost Consortium
The EndoCost Consortium consists of: Leuven University (Belgium) which coordinates the study; Glostrup Hospital (Denmark); CHU de Clermont Ferrand (France); KEZ-Berlin (Germany); Medizinische Hochshule Hannover (Germany); Semelweis University (Hungary); University of Milano (Italy); University of Bern (Switzerland); University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom); Christus St Frances Cabrini Hospital (USA); The Cleveland Clinic (USA); University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA); University of Maastricht (The Netherlands).
