Estimating the Economic Burden of Osteoporotic Vertebral Fracture among Elderly Korean Women.
10.3961/jpmph.2008.41.5.287
- Author:
Hye Young KANG
1
;
Dae Ryong KANG
;
Young Hwa JANG
;
Sung Eun PARK
;
Won Jung CHOI
;
Seong Hwan MOON
;
Kyu Hyun YANG
Author Information
1. Graduate School of Public Health, Yonsei University, Korea. hykang@yuhs.ac
- Publication Type:Original Article ; English Abstract
- Keywords:
Cost of disease;
Insurance claim;
Osteoporosis;
Vertebral fracture
- MeSH:
*Cost of Illness;
Female;
Financing, Personal;
Humans;
Interviews as Topic;
Korea;
Medical Audit;
Middle Aged;
Osteoporosis/complications/*economics;
Spinal Fractures/economics/etiology/*physiopathology
- From:Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
2008;41(5):287-294
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
OBJECTIVES: To estimate the economic burden of osteoporotic vertebral fracture (VF) from a societal perspective. METHODS: From 2002 to 2004, we identified all National Health Insurance claims records for women > or = 50 years old with a diagnosis of VF. The first 6-months was defined as a "clearance period," Ysuch that patients were considered as incident cases if their first claim of fracture was recorded after June 30, 2002. We only included patients with > or = one claim of a diagnosis of, or prescription for, osteoporosis over 3 years. For each patient, we cumulated the claims amount for the first visit and for the follow-up treatments for 1 year. The hospital charge data from 4 hospitals were investigated to measure the proportion of the non-covered services. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 106 patients from the 4 study sites to measure the out-of-pocket spending outside of hospitals. RESULTS: During 2.5 years, 131,453 VF patients were identified. The patients had an average of 3.38 visits, 0.40 admissions and 6.36 inpatient days. The per capita cost was 1,909,690 Won: 71.5% for direct medical costs, 20.6% for direct non-medical costs and 7.9% for indirect costs. The per capita cost increased with increasing age: 1,848,078 Won for those aged 50-64, 2,084,846 Won for 65-74, 2,129,530 Won for 75-84and 2,121,492 Won for those above 84. CONCLUSIONS: Exploring the economic burden of osteoporotic VF is expected to motivate to adopt effective treatment options for osteoporosis in order to prevent the incidence of fracture and the consequent costs.
