| The objectives of this study were to determine incremental health care resource utilization, incremental health care expenditures, incremental absenteeism, and incremental absenteeism costs associated with Osteoarthritis. An observational database analysis was conducted using information from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Individuals 18 years of age or older and employed during 2011 were eligible for inclusion in the sample for analyses. Individuals were identified with Osteoarthritis diagnosis based on ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes. Out of a sample of 26,992 individuals, 1,354 were diagnosed with osteoarthritis. Individuals with osteoarthritis were compared to individuals without osteoarthritis.;Incremental health care resource utilization examined included annual hospitalization, annual hospital days, annual emergency room visits, annual outpatient visits. Incremental health expenditures examined included annual inpatient expenditures, annual outpatient expenditures, annual emergency room expenditures, annual miscellaneous expenditures, annual medication expenditures and annual total expenditures. Incremental resource utilization, incremental resource expenditures, incremental absenteeism and incremental absenteeism costs were estimated using regression models, adjusting for other covariates including age, gender, sex, region, marital status, insurance coverage, comorbidities, anxiety, asthma, hypertension and hyperlipidemia. Multivariate regression models revealed incremental mean annual resource use associated with osteoarthritis of 0.07 hospitalizations, equal to 70 additional hospitalizations per 100 osteoarthritic patients annually, and 3.63 outpatient visits, equal to 363 additional visits per 100 osteoarthritic patients annually. Mean annual incremental total expenditures associated with osteoarthritis were ;In conclusion, osteoarthritis was associated with considerable incremental health care resource utilization and expenditures. Presence of osteoarthritis was also associated with significant incremental absenteeism and incremental absenteeism costs. |
