Welfare Benefits in Functional Somatic Disorders
Condition: Fibromyalgia; Irritable Bowel Syndrome; Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; Bodily Distress Syndrome; Somatoform Disorders; Medically Unexplained Syndrome; Medically Unexplained Symptoms
MeSH terms: Fibromyalgia; Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic; Irritable Bowel Syndrome; Syndrome; Medically Unexplained Symptoms; Somatoform Disorders
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      The objective of this observational study is to estimate the number of weeks of welfare
      benefits, i.e. sickness benefit, unemployment benefit and social assistance, for individuals
      with functional somatic disorders and compare them to

        1. healthy individuals, and

        2. individuals with severe physical disease.
    

Detailed description: 
      Functional somatic disorders (FSD) are common conditions characterized by persistent patterns
      of physical symptoms that cannot be better explained by other physical or mental conditions
      (1). The conditions may cause severe impairment for the patients who present with reduced
      physical and mental health, lower social status, and poor labour market association (2-4).

      In 2005, it was estimated that FSD accounted for 3% of hospitalizations and 10-20% of health
      care expenses in Denmark (5), and a newer Danish primary care study has shown patients with
      FSD to have higher annual health care costs compared with conventionally-defined conditions
      (6). In other countries, studies in clinical samples have shown increased direct and indirect
      health care costs of FSD (7, 8) showing a dose-response relationship with severity of the FSD
      (9). These studies into highly selected clinical samples may induce high risk of selection
      bias, and studies including random selected general population samples are therefore needed.
      One Canadian population-based study on health care costs of children, adolescents, and young
      adults with FSD also found increased health care use and costs for this group (10). Studies
      investigating the socioeconomic burden in terms of welfare benefits of FSD in an adult random
      sample from the general population are, however, lacking.

      Objective To estimate the number of weeks of welfare benefits, i.e. sickness benefit,
      unemployment benefit and social assistance, for individuals with FSD and compare them to
      individuals without FSD and individuals with severe physical disease.
    

Observational model: Cohort
Time perspective: Cross-Sectional
Sampling method: Probability Sample
Study population: 
        Participants were randomly drawn from the adult general Danish population by means of the
        the Danish Civil Registration system.

        The DanFunD baseline cohort comprises a total of 9,656 (33.7% of invited participants) men
        and women aged 18-76 years, born in Denmark, and living in the Western part of greater
        Copenhagen. All participants filled in questionnaires regarding physical symptoms and
        psychological factors, among others. A stratified subsample (n=2,450) of every tenth
        participant and every symptom high score participant on the DanFunD baseline symptom
        questionnaires were invited to participate in a diagnostic interview, the Research
        Interview for Functional somatic Disorders (RIFD), performed by trained family physicians
        (28); 1,590 (64.9%) accepted and participated in the interview.