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National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Division of Adult and Community Health
Health Care and Aging Studies Branch
Arthritis Program
Mailstop K-51
4770 Buford Highway NE
Atlanta, GA 30341-3724
Phone: 770.488.5464
Fax: 770.488.5964
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Data and Statistics
FAQs (Data Related)
Cost Analysis
- What is the national cost of arthritis and other
rheumatic diseases (AORC) for the United States?
- How are the costs of arthritis and other rheumatic
diseases (AORC) at the state level determined?
- Does the CDC recommend using Medicare and Medicaid data
for arthritis surveillance?
- Does the CDC recommend using pharmacy data for
arthritis surveillance or to make cost estimates?
Back to Question Categories
- What is the national cost of arthritis and other
rheumatic diseases (AORC) for the United States?
In 2003,
arthritis and other rheumatic conditions (AORC) cost the United States
$127.8 billion ($80.8 billion in medical care expenditures and $47.0
billion in lost earnings). The total national costs of $127.8 billion
were 1.2% of the Gross Domestic Product, which is equal to a chronic,
small recession. These are the most recent U.S. population-based cost
estimates for AORC and were generated from the Medical Expenditure Panel
Survey, a nationally representative survey conducted annually.
You can learn more about the national cost estimates in the following
MMWR publication. (Yelin E, Cisternas M, Foreman A, Pasta D, Murphy L,
Helmick C.
National and state medical expenditures and lost earnings
attributable to arthritis and other rheumatic conditions — United
States, 2003. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2007;56(1):4–7.
A more detailed report on how the national cost estimates were
derived, and comparisons between 1997 and 2003 was published: Yelin E, Murphy L, Cisternas MG, Foreman AJ, Pasta DJ, Helmick CG. Medical Care Expenditures and Earnings Losses
Among Persons with
Arthritis and Other Rheumatic Conditions in 2003, and Comparisons with
1997. Arthritis and Rheumatism 2007;56(5):1397–1407.
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- How are the costs of arthritis and other
rheumatic diseases (AORC) at the state level determined?
There are insufficient state-specific data to accurately estimate the
costs attributable to AORC for all 50 states, therefore we used national
data to calculate state-level costs.
We generated 2003 national arthritis cost estimates using data from
the 2003 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Then we estimated each
state's direct arthritis costs by apportioning the national arthritis
direct cost estimate by each state's proportion of the overall (i.e., 50
states and District of Columbia) arthritis burden (i.e., using the
proportion of doctor-diagnosed arthritis prevalence for each state from
the 2003 BRFSS survey). For example, if a state had 2.5% of the overall
prevalence of doctor-diagnosed arthritis, it would have 2.5% of the
national direct costs. We used the same approach to estimate state-level
indirect costs (that is, apportioned the national interest estimate by
each states proportion of the overall arthritis burden).
Some studies for other conditions have used a different method to
estimate direct costs
by applying the national attributable fractions for the condition to the
state cost estimates of the National Health Account data, which
estimates health costs for each state. We believe this approach might
result in a sizeable overestimate of state costs.
Medical expenditures and lost earnings for each state are presented
in the following MMWR publication. Yelin E, Cisternas M, Foreman A,
Pasta D, Murphy L, Helmick C.
National and state medical expenditures
and lost earnings attributable to arthritis and other rheumatic
conditions — United States, 2003. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
2007;56(1):4–7
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- Does the CDC recommend using Medicare and
Medicaid data for arthritis surveillance?
No. Dr. Ken Powell from the Georgia Department of Human Resources
explored the use of these data (Powell E, Diseker A, Presley J, et al.
Administrative data as a tool for arthritis surveillance: Estimating
prevalence and utilization of services. Journal of Public Health
Management and Practice. 2003 July;9(4); 291–298. He found one can
obtain different answers, depending on 1) how variables are defined, 2)
the number of years included, and 3) how enrollment is defined. He also
found that using these data was very labor intensive and was difficult
to justify.
In the absence of a clear link to a project, or to your state
arthritis plan, we recommend you do not analyze Medicaid or Medicare
data, especially if it takes program resources.
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- Does the CDC recommend using pharmacy data for
arthritis surveillance or to make cost estimates?
No. One problem
is that very few arthritis medications are used only for arthritis; most
are used for other conditions as well. For example, some of the
biologics can cost $15,000 to $20,000 a year and are used for other
conditions like inflammatory bowel disease. This is an issue that needs
to be further explored to determine the utility of these data.
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Page last reviewed: June 15, 2007
Page last modified: June 13, 2007
Content Source: Division of
Adult and Community Health,
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
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