A health economics assessment of self-care with over-the-counter ibuprofen in dysmenorrhoea, migraine and acute rhinosinusitis in the United Kingdom

TL;DR

Using over-the-counter ibuprofen for minor conditions like dysmenorrhoea, migraine, and acute rhinosinusitis could save the NHS resources and reduce missed work and school days.

Contribution

This study quantifies the economic impact of increased self-care with ibuprofen on healthcare resource use and productivity in the UK.

Findings

A 5% increase in self-care with ibuprofen could prevent 409,243 NHS appointments in the UK over one year.

Approximately 882,875 work hours and 117,114 school hours could be saved with increased ibuprofen self-care.

Sensitivity analysis highlights the importance of self-care rates, working hours, and appointment waiting times in the model.

Abstract

Increased appropriate use of self-care for minor conditions can reduce the number of healthcare professional appointments and, hence, provide opportunity cost savings to the National Health Service (NHS). The receipt of over-the-counter medications can lead to faster access to treatment, improved health-related quality of life, and fewer education and work days lost.

A model was developed to evaluate the economic impact of a change in the proportion of people using self-care with ibuprofen to manage three conditions (dysmenorrhoea, migraine and acute rhinosinusitis) on preventable healthcare resource use from the perspective of the NHS and Personal Social Services (PSS). The total number of appointments for each condition was estimated from NHS Digital and was based on the number of primary (n = 230,298,091) and secondary (n = 22,839,832) care visits, and the proportion of visits due to each condition (informed by clinical opinion). Work and school days lost were also modelled to estimate the wider indirect costs associated with preventable absences due to delays in receiving treatment. Deterministic sensitivity and scenario analyses were also conducted to estimate the uncertainty associated with the analysis.

The use of self-care with ibuprofen was increased by 5% in the base case analysis. The results indicate that this increase could prevent 409,243 appointments in the United Kingdom over a one-year time horizon. 882,875 and 117,114 work and school hours lost could also be prevented, respectively. Sensitivity analysis suggests the magnitude of change in self-care, average working hours/pay and appointment waiting times are the main drivers of the model results.

Self-care with ibuprofen provides opportunity cost-savings to the NHS and frees up the capacity of healthcare professionals so that they can focus on more severe conditions.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12962-025-00660-6.

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