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The current economic burden of illness of osteoporosis in Canada

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Abstract

Summary

We estimate the current burden of illness of osteoporosis in Canada is double ($4.6 billion) our previous estimates ($2.3 billion) due to improved data capture of the multiple encounters and services that accompany a fracture: emergency room, admissions to acute and step-down non-acute institutions, rehabilitation, home-assisted or long-term residency support.

Introduction

We previously estimated the economic burden of illness of osteoporosis-attributable fractures in Canada for the year 2008 to be $2.3 billion in the base case and as much as $3.9 billion. The aim of this study is to update the estimate of the economic burden of illness for osteoporosis-attributable fractures for Canada based on newly available home care and long-term care (LTC) data.

Methods

Multiple national databases were used for the fiscal-year ending March 31, 2011 (FY 2010/2011) for acute institutional care, emergency visits, day surgery, secondary admissions for rehabilitation, and complex continuing care, as well as national dispensing data for osteoporosis medications. Gaps in national data were supplemented by provincial and community survey data. Osteoporosis-attributable fractures for Canadians age 50+ were identified by ICD-10-CA codes. Costs were expressed in 2014 dollars.

Results

In FY 2010/2011, the number of osteoporosis-attributable fractures was 131,443 resulting in 64,884 acute care admissions and 983,074 acute hospital days. Acute care costs were $1.5 billion, an 18 % increase since 2008. The cost of LTC was 33.4 times the previous estimate ($31 million versus $1.03 billion) because of improved data capture. The cost for rehabilitation and secondary admissions increased 3.4 fold, while drug costs decreased 19 %. The overall cost of osteoporosis was over $4.6 billion, an increase of 83 % from the 2008 estimate.

Conclusion

Since the 2008 estimate, new Canadian data on home care and LTC are available which provided a better estimate of the burden of osteoporosis in Canada. This suggests that our previous estimates were seriously underestimated.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by a grant from Amgen Canada. National administrative data were provided by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programs for Assessment of Technology in Health (PATH), St Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    R. B. Hopkins, N. Burke, C. Von Keyserlingk & J. Tarride

  2. Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    R. B. Hopkins, A. Papaioannou & J. Tarride

  3. Department of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    W. D. Leslie

  4. Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada

    S. N. Morin

  5. Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    J. D. Adachi & A. Papaioannou

  6. Department of Medicine, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada

    L. Bessette & J. P. Brown

  7. Amgen Canada Inc., Mississauga, ON, Canada

    L. Pericleous

  8. PATH Research Institute, 25 Main Street West, Suite 2000, Hamilton, ON, L8P 1H1, Canada

    R. B. Hopkins

Authors
  1. R. B. Hopkins
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  2. N. Burke
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  3. C. Von Keyserlingk
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  4. W. D. Leslie
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  5. S. N. Morin
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  6. J. D. Adachi
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  7. A. Papaioannou
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  8. L. Bessette
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  9. J. P. Brown
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  10. L. Pericleous
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  11. J. Tarride
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. B. Hopkins.

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Conflicts of interests

Dr. Tarride has received grant/research support from Amgen Canada.

Dr. Morin has received grant/research support from Amgen and Merck and consultant fees from Amgen.

Dr. Adachi has received grant/research support from Amgen, Eli Lilly, and Merck; speaker’s bureau/honoraria from Actavis, Amgen, Eli Lilly, and Merck; and has been a consultant for AgNovos, Amgen, Eli Lilly, and Merck.

Dr. Papaioannou has received grant/research support and consulting fees from Amgen, consulting fees from Eli Lilly, is a member of an Advisory Board for Amgen, Eli Lilly, and Merck, and is a member of a speaker’s bureau for Amgen and Eli Lilly.

Dr. Bessette has received grant/research support from Amgen.

Dr. Brown has received grant/research support, consulting fees, and speakers’ bureau fees from Amgen and Eli Lilly, and grant/research support from Novartis.

Dr. Pericleous is employed by Amgen Canada, which funded this study.

Dr. Leslie has received grant/research support and speaker fees from Amgen.

Dr. Hopkins, Ms. Burke, and Ms. von Keyserlingk declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Statement of human and animal rights

Ethics approval and consent from patients was not necessary for use of these de-identified secondary data sets provided by CIHI.

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Hopkins, R.B., Burke, N., Von Keyserlingk, C. et al. The current economic burden of illness of osteoporosis in Canada. Osteoporos Int 27, 3023–3032 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-016-3631-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-016-3631-6

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