Insurer and out‐of‐pocket costs of osteoarthritis in the US: Evidence from national survey data

Abstract

Objective. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a major debilitating disease affecting ϳ27 million persons in the US. Yet, the financial costs to patients and insurers remain poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to quantify by multivariate analyses the relationships between OA and annual health care expenditures borne by patients and insurers. Conclusion. The health care cost burden associated with OA is quite large for all groups examined and is disproportionately higher for women. Although insurers bear the brunt of treatment costs for OA, the OOP costs are also substantial. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common and debilitating disease that affects ϳ27 million people in the US (1).Given an aging population, the prevalence and costs associated with OA are projected to increase. Forecasts indicate that by the year 2030, 25% of the adult US population, or nearly 67 million people, will have physician-diagnosed arthritis (2). It is thus important from a policy perspective to quantify the direct health care costs associated with this disease.While a number of studies have estimated the direct costs of OA (3-12), existing studies using US data are regionally based, and the results may not be generalizable. These studies typically use data obtained during the early 1990s. In reviewing the literature on the costs of OA, Xie et al (13) noted that ". . . cost of OA studies were insufficiently performed in the past decade . . ." Existing studies typically did not perform multivariate analyses to better isolate the effects of OA on health expenditures. While studies have adjusted for age and sex in comparing cohorts of OA and non-OA patients, Maetzel (14) noted that such matching ". . . is unlikely to weed out the costs that are attributable to other comorbidities, unless they have been adjusted for."Evidence on the direct costs of OA varies greatly. In their literature review, Xie et al (13) noted that direct costs from OA varied 10-fold among studies in the US. Wide variations across other countries were observed as well. These striking variations reflect a host of factors, including different geographic regions assessed, differ-

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Artificial cartilage bio-matrix formed of hyaluronic acid and Mg2+-polyphosphate

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