Monday, August 15, 2011

Early detection, diagnosis and treatment of celiac disease lowers medical costs


Early detection, diagnosis and treatment of celiac disease lowers medical costs, by an average of US $1,764 per year and will likely benefit patients and health care providers alike, so a team at Mayo clinic determined. They also commented that costs associated with celiac disease pose a significant economic burden, but most startling was the economic burden especially for men with the disease.

The obvious conclusion is that we should increase testing for celiac disease in all but especially in men, especially in those with illness and no obvious cause.
This was reported in this week’s celiac.com by Jefferson Adams.(My emphasis in bold)

To carry out their population-based cohort, the team used administrative data on celiac disease cases and matched controls from Olmsted County, Minnesota.

They compared: 1) direct medical costs one year before and one year after celiac disease diagnosis for 133 index cases and for control subjects; and 2) cumulative direct medical costs over four years for 153 index celiac cases and for control subjects. Their analysis did not include diagnostic-related and outpatient pharmaceutical costs.

They found that a diagnosis of celiac disease lowers the average total costs by $1,764 in the year following diagnosis (pre-diagnosis cost of $5,023 vs. $3,259; 95% CI of difference: $688 to $2,993).

They found also that, over a 4-year period, people with celiac disease faced an average of $1,457 in higher outpatient costs (P = 0.016), and an average of $3,964 in higher total costs of $3,964; (P = 0.053), compared with the control group.

Men with celiac disease bore the brunt of those higher costs, with excess average total costs of just over $14,000 compared to costs of $4,000 for male controls; 95% CI of difference: $2,334 to $20,309).
Costs associated with celiac disease pose a significant economic burden, especially for men with the disease.

The abstract for the research article can be found at Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics Volume pages 261–269, July 2010.