Digestive Diseases Vary in Manifestations, But Remain Costly
While digestive diseases can vary significantly in symptoms and cost, they are highly common and collectively inflict significant financial burden on the adult population in the United States, a recent study revealed.
“Digestive diseases represent a diverse group of clinical conditions that impact the population. Their heterogeneity in classification, presentation, acuity, chronicity, and need for drug therapy presents a challenge when comparing and contrasting the burden associated with these conditions,” the authors reported. “Prior studies use an outdated classification system and aggregate costs at the population level or focus on specific diseases, limiting the ability to characterize the overall landscape. Our aim was to provide the most up to date assessment of cost, utilization, and prevalence associated with digestive diseases.”
Researchers retrieved clinical data, including costs, disease prevalence, and utilization between 2016 and 2018 across 38 conditions, from commercially insured adults . The study included a total of 7,297,435 patients with outcome variables, including annualized all-cause medical and drug costs; digestive disease-specific average medical costs; digestive disease-specific cost per fill; point prevalence and relative prevalence; and utilization by clinical setting and condition.
“The point prevalence of having a digestive disease in the total population was 24%. Annualized total costs by clinical category ranged from $10,038 (eosinophilic esophagitis) to $107,007 (hepatitis C) with medical costs accounting for most of the expenditures in a majority of conditions. Annualized total costs for common conditions included $39,653 for alcoholic liver disease, $42,554 for acute pancreatitis, $62,735 for Crohn’s disease, $13,948 for functional GI disorders, $53,214 for nonalcoholic cirrhosis, and $36,441 for ulcerative colitis,” the authors concluded.
—Angelique Platas
Reference:
Mathews SC, Izmailyan S, Brito FA, Yamal JM, Mikhail O, Revere RL. Prevalence and financial burden of digestive diseases in a commercially insured population. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol Published online ahead of print July 1, 2021.
