Health Care Costs During Last Year of Life Higher Among Patients With Parkinson Disease

In the last year of life, rates of long-term care and home care, as well as health care costs, were higher among people with Parkinson disease (PD) compared with people without PD, according to study findings published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.

“The end-of-life period is associated with disproportionately higher health care utilization and cost at the population level but there is little data in Parkinson disease,” wrote corresponding author Jocelyn Zwicker, MD, of The Ottawa Hospital, Ontario, Canada, and coauthors.

To gain a better understanding of how health care use and costs during the last year of life differed in people with and without PD, researchers conducted a retrospective, population-based cohort study of all people who died in Ontario, Canada, between 2015 and 2017.

The study population included a total 291,276 decedents, 12,440 of whom had PD.

During the last year of life, 52% of people with PD were admitted to long-term care compared with 23% of those without PD, according to study authors. Participants with PD averaged 69.0 days of home care compared with 41.8 days for other participants.

Palliative home care or physician palliative home consultation decreased the liklihood of a hospital death. Researchers reported an odds ratio of 0.24.

On average, the cost of care during the last year of life was higher for people with PD: $68,391, compared with $59,244 for people without PD, reported researchers.

Reference:
Zwicker J, Qureshi D, Talarico R, et al. Dying with Parkinson’s disease: healthcare utilization and costs in the last year of life. J Parkinsons Dis. Published online September 16, 2022. doi:10.3233/JPD-223429