Direct medical costs associated with Parkinson's disease: A population-based study

✍ Scribed by Cynthia L. Leibson; Kirsten Hall Long; Demetrius M. Maraganore; James H. Bower; Jeanine E. Ransom; Peter C. O'Brien; Walter A. Rocca

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 123 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-3185
• DOI: 10.1002/mds.21075

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The objective was to provide population‐based estimates of incremental medical costs associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) from onset forward. All Olmsted County, Minnesota, residents with confirmed PD onset from 1987 through 1995 (n = 92) and one age‐ and sex‐matched non‐PD referent subject per case were identified with retrospective record review and followed in provider‐linked billing data for direct medical costs (excluding outpatient pharmaceutical costs) from 1 year before index (i.e., year of symptom onset) through 10 years after index. Costs for each referent subject were subtracted from those for his/her matched case. Tests for statistical significance used Wilcoxon signed ranks. Preindex costs were similar [median difference in annual costs (MD) = −$3; P = 0.59]. One year post index, PD subjects exhibited borderline significantly higher costs compared to referent subjects (MD = $581; P = 0.052); the difference diminished over 5 years (MD = $118; P = 0.82). By 5 to 10 years, however, PD subjects exhibited significantly higher costs (MD = $1,146; P = 0.01). Over the full 10 years, excess costs were concentrated among PD subjects without rest tremor (MD = $2,261, P < 0.01, for those without tremor and −$229, P = 0.99, for those with tremor). These population‐based estimates of PD‐associated direct medical costs from onset forward can uniquely inform policy decisions and cost–effectiveness research. © 2006 Movement Disorder Society