Burden and cost of neurological diseases: a E uropean N orth– S outh comparison

Objectives To address the relationship between years lived with a disability ( YLD s), prevalence and cost of neurological diseases, and to test whether there is a E uropean N orth– S outh gradient for national health expenditure, disability, costs and prevalence of neurological diseases. Materials and methods Information on costs, prevalence and YLD s referred to 2010 were taken from the Study on the Cost of Disorders of the Brain and from the Global Burden of Disease study; data on health expenditure were taken from OECD reports. Selected conditions were as follows: brain tumours, stroke, dementia, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, migraine and tension‐type headache; selected countries were from North (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden) and South (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain) Europe. The association between the variables for each condition was tested using Spearman's correlation; Wilcoxon signed ranks test was used to test North–South Europe differences. Results Correlations were largely non‐significant (except for stroke). YLD s and cost were generally lower in South‐European countries, and prevalence was lower in North‐European countries, but no significant differences were found. Conclusions Health expenditure, YLD s, costs and prevalence of neurological conditions were generally not correlated across the eight countries. A clear North–South gradient was found for health expenditures, and partially for YLD s, costs and diseases' prevalence. We hypothesized that this is a consequence of the expansion of morbidity of neurological conditions connected to ageing, that health and welfare systems of selected countries were not prepared to face.