Healthcare resource use and costs in persistent non‐anterior non‐infectious uveitis

Abstract

AbstractPurpose To assess direct and indirect economic burden for privately insured US employees with persistent non‐anterior non‐infectious uveitis (NIU) compared with matched controls without uveitis.Methods Persistent cases were 18–64 years old with ≥2 ICD‐9 diagnoses for intermediate‐, posterior‐ or pan‐NIU (OptumHealth, 01/1998–03/2012) with ≥90 days of corticosteroid, immunosuppressant, and/or biologic use. Cases were matched 1:1 by sex, age, region and index date to controls. Direct (medical services and prescription drugs) and indirect (disability and medically‐related absenteeism) healthcare resource use (HRU) and costs (2012 USD) were compared using Wilcoxon/McNemar tests and multivariate regression (adjusting for baseline characteristics).Results Annual unadjusted mean direct HRU and costs, including inpatient (0.3 vs. 0.1 stays; $3,628 vs $586), outpatient (26.3 vs 9.6 visits; $12,038 vs $3,065), ophthalmology/optometry (6.6 vs 0.5 visits; $3,486 vs $83), emergency (0.6 vs 0.1 visits; $267 vs $31), and prescription drugs (13.3 vs 4.5; $10,345 vs $1,499) were significantly higher for cases vs controls (all P<.05). Indirect HRU and costs (35.5 vs 11.5 days; $6,624 vs $1,816), specifically absenteeism (14.3 vs 4.0 days; $3,818 vs $862), also were higher for cases vs controls (all P<.05). Adjusted total direct costs ($35,739 vs $7,670) and indirect costs ($6,902 vs $1,612) were significantly higher for cases vs controls (all P<.05).Conclusion Persistent non‐anterior NIU is associated with substantial direct and indirect costs. Commercial interest