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 costs and length of stay (LOS) among patients with 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 code (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 73.6±0.3 years with 65.3% male and 34.6% female (p<.001). The highest percentage of discharges were seen in Medicare patients (81.9%), white patients (76.6%) and in southern hospitals (34.2%). The average length of stay for patients with a diagnosis of PD was 6.2±0.2 days with a mean cost of $12,108±320 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±3.0 days) compared to other payer status (Medicare= 6.4±0.2 days, Private= 4.1±0.4 days, and uninsured patients=4.4±0.8 days). Of all total discharges, 4,415 (22.3%) patients were classified as living in a low median income zipcode compared to not low median income zipcode (p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS:

This study hospitalization burden in PD and as the US population ages, it is important to characterize resource utilization and important predictors for PD because of its significant economic burden.