Elsevier

Urology

Volume 63, Issue 3, March 2004, Pages 461-465
Urology

Adult urology
Costs of urinary incontinence and overactive bladder in the United States: a comparative study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2003.10.037Get rights and content

Abstract

Objectives

To update the cost of urinary incontinence (UI) for year 2000 and compare it with the cost of overactive bladder (OAB).

Methods

Using the cost-of-illness framework, disease epidemiologic data were combined with treatment rates, consequence probabilities, and average cost estimates. All costs reflect the costs during 2000.

Results

The total cost of UI and OAB was $19.5 billion and $12.6 billion, respectively (year 2000 dollars). With UI, $14.2 billion was borne by community residents and $5.3 billion by institutional residents. With OAB, $9.1 and $3.5 billion, respectively, was incurred by community and institutional residents.

Conclusions

OAB affected 34 million individuals compared with 17 million with UI. Despite the differences in epidemiology, the total and per-person costs of UI were higher than the OAB costs because OAB individuals without incontinent episodes incurred fewer costs, on average.

Section snippets

Estimation framework

To determine the costs of illness, we considered the direct, indirect, and intangible costs. Direct costs included routine care (ie, absorbent products and laundry), treatment, and consequence (eg, urinary tract infections). Indirect costs referred to lost productivity resulting from either a decrease in the probability of working or in the number of hours worked. Lost productivity also consisted of the value of an informal caregiver's time. We estimated these costs from statistical models

Costs of UI and OAB among community-dwelling adults

An estimated 17 million community dwelling persons had daily UI in 2000. The estimated number of people with OAB was considerably greater (34 million), but only 2.9 million of these people had incontinent episodes (ie, OAB wet). Women were more commonly affected with UI and OAB than men. An estimated 1.89 million institutional residents were older than 60 years, and about 50% (0.945 million) of these persons had incontinence. Of the 945,000 persons with UI, approximately 65% (614,250) had OAB

Comment

The costs associated with UI were $19.5 billion (year 2000 dollars), and the cost associated with OAB totaled $12.6 billion. Community-dwelling individuals incurred more than 70% of the costs for both conditions. The difference between the total UI ($19.5 billion) and OAB ($12.6 billion) costs was explained by two factors. First, although approximately 34 million community-dwelling adults in the United States have OAB, fewer than 2.9 million experienced an incontinent episode (OAB wet) compared

Acknowledgements

To Ron Corey for his professional input during the early period of this study.

References (19)

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Funding for this study was provided by Pharmacia Corporation.

T.-W. Hu and T. H. Wagner served as paid consultants to the sponsor. J. D. Bentkover and K. LeBlanc received partial funding from the sponsor.

The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of the University of California at Berkeley, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Stanford University, Innovative Health Solutions, Innovative Medical Research, Johns Hopkins University, or Pharmacia Corporation.

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