OBJECTIVES

The mean age of onset of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is sixty years old. Thus, it is associated with significant economic burden as the median age of the United States (US) population increases. The objective of this study is to assess the 2016 inpatient charges and length of stay (LOS) among patients with a primary diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) in the US.

METHODS

A retrospective database analysis was conducted using the 2016 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database of the Health care Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). Patients with a primary diagnosis of PD were identified using the ICD 10 CM diagnosis codes (G20). Differences in PD related length of stay and total charges were described by patient and hospital characteristics including age, gender, race, payer status, and hospital region. All statistical analyses were conducted using survey procedure in SAS 9.4.

RESULTS

There were 19,725 discharges with a principal diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease in the US in 2016. The mean age was 73.61 years with 65.30% male and 34.60% female. The highest percentage of discharges were seen in Medicare patients (81.85%), white patients (76.55%) and in southern hospitals (34.17%). The average length of stay for patients with a diagnosis of PD was 6.2 days with a mean cost of $12,108 incurred during the hospital stay. Although Medicaid patients accounted for only 2.6% of total discharges, they had the highest average length of stay (11.3 days) compared to other payer status (Medicare= 6.4 days, Private= 4.1 days, and uninsured patients 4.4 days).

CONCLUSIONS

Inpatients LOS and costs are high in PD. Successful interventions that take into account important PD-related patient and hospital characteristics could result in improved health outcomes and substantial cost savings in this patient population.