Abstract 2311: Hospitalization Costs of Stroke among Adults 18-64 Years in the United States

Background and purpose: The average cost of stroke, a leading cause of death and serious long-term disability, has been estimated to range from $468 to $146,149 worldwide, and varies 20-fold in the United States. A robust cost estimate is needed for policy makers, public health researchers and practitioners to use as a reference in making resource allocation decisions and assessing cost-effectiveness of intervention programs. This study examined the hospitalization costs of stroke using a large administrative data. Methods: We identified 97,374 hospitalizations with a primary or secondary diagnosis of stroke from pooling 2006-2008 MarketScan inpatient datasets. We investigated the costs by stratifying the hospitalizations by stroke types (hemorrhagic ICD-9 430-432, ischemic ICD-9 433-434, ill-defined ICD-9 436-437, and late-effects ICD-9 438) and diagnosis status (primary and secondary). For hospitalizations with stroke as the primary diagnosis, we identified those with a secondary diagnosis of hypertension, ischemic heart disease (IHD), and diabetes. We used multiple regression models to estimate the impact of stroke types and diagnosis status on the costs controlling age, sex, geographic region, and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI). Results: Of the 97,374 hospitalizations (average cost $20,396 ±23,256), the number of hospitalizations with hemorrhagic, ischemic, ill-defined, and late-effects of stroke was 16,331, 62,637, 38,312, and 14,221 with an average cost of $32,035 ±32,046, $18,963 ±21,454, $19,430 ±22,159, and $18,946±19,891, respectively. Over 61% of the hospitalizations listed stroke as a secondary diagnosis only. Regression results showed that the costs increased by at least $962 per CCI unit increase (p<0.001). Hemorrhagic stroke cost $14,499 more than ischemic stroke (p<0.001). For hospitalizations with the primary diagnosis of stroke, those with a secondary diagnosis of IHD had higher costs than those without IHD, especially among those of ischemic stroke ($9835 higher, p<0.001), while hypertension and diabetes as a secondary diagnosis lowered the costs. Hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of ischemic stroke had $3195 lower cost than those listed as secondary diagnosis, but hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of hemorrhagic stroke had $8001 higher cost than those listed as a secondary diagnosis. Conclusions: The costs of stroke hospitalizations were high and varied greatly by stroke types, diagnosis status, and comorbidities. Stroke types and their comorbidities should be considered when developing cost-effective strategies for stroke prevention.