Background/Purpose: Using data from the 2010 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), we estimated total and arthritis-attributable medical care expenditures among US adults age 18 years and over with arthritis.

Methods: Arthritis was identified using an ICD-9-CM based definition of doctor-diagnosed arthritis.  We estimated total and arthritis-attributable expenditures (the national sum and per–person mean) overall and for four categories: ambulatory care (office-based and hospital outpatient); inpatient care; prescriptions; and other (emergency room visits, home health care, vision aids, dental visits and medical devices). Arthritis-attributable expenditures were calculated using multi-stage regression models that adjusted for demographics (age, sex, race, Hispanic ethnicity, and education), health insurance coverage (any private, public only, or none), and nine costly comorbid conditions.

Results: In 2010, total medical care expenditures among adults with arthritis were $9,262 per person, (national sum =  $566 billion), representing half of all expenditures among US adults in MEPS.  Across categories, inpatient expenditures were highest ($2,972 per person), accounting for 32% of total medical expenditures among people with arthritis.  National arthritis-attributable expenditures totaled $112.4 billion (mean per person = $1,840 [Figure]), and represented 10% of all national expenditures among US adults in MEPS, with inpatient expenditures comprising the largest portion of arthritis-attributable costs (29%).  The national sum of arthritis-attributable expenditures were $33 billion for inpatient care, $29 billion for ambulatory care, $25 billion for prescriptions, and $25 billion for other services.

Conclusion: Analysis of US adults in 2010 showed that their arthritis-attributable medical care costs comprised 10% of all medical care expenditures nationally and total costs (including non-arthritis expenditures) for the arthritis population comprised half of all medical expenditures. This illustrates both the substantial economic impact of arthritis itself as well as the impact of comorbid conditions that occur in the 27% of the adult population living with arthritis.  Population aging and increasing prevalence of obesity imply that these expenditures will increase in the future and suggest the need for intervention strategies such as weight management and increasing physical activity that prevent the adverse effects of arthritis including pain and disability.

Figure