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Volume 12, Number 4—April 2006
Research

Economic Impact of Lyme Disease

Xinzhi Zhang*Comments to Author , Martin I. Meltzer*, César A. Peña†1, Annette B. Hopkins†, Lane Wroth‡, and Alan D. Fix†
Author affiliations: *Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; †University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA; ‡Care First-Easton Branch (previously Delmarva Health Plan), Easton, Maryland, USA

Main Article

Table 5

Impact on direct medical cost* due to cohort year, Lyme disease (LD) diagnosis groups, diagnostic and treatment procedures, and patient characteristics in Maryland Eastern Shore (regression results, n = 3,415)

Direct medical cost (US$) 5th CI† (US$) 95th CI (US$) p
Baseline cost‡ 60.88 55.94 66.26 <0.0001
Additional direct medical cost§
Clinically early stage 34.93 22.59 50.65 <0.0001
Clinically late stage 67.05 45.57 94.97 <0.0001
Suspected LD 3.16 -0.68 7.96 0.171
Other LD-relevant complaint 8.33 4.28 13.29 <0.0001
Serologic test¶ 38.27 28.20 50.59 <0.0001
Procedure# 26.13 17.68 36.58 <0.0001
Hospitalization/emergency room (ER)** 114.96 89.85 145.83 <0.0001
Consultation†† 84.68 68.09 104.56 <0.0001
Therapy‡‡ 36.66 29.15 45.56 <0.0001
Miscellaneous§§ 46.96 38.21 57.27 <0.0001
Erythema migrans¶¶ -9.56 -13.02 -4.90 <0.0001
Male -0.68 -2.72 1.84 0.571
Each year of age## 0.11 0.05 0.19 <0.0001
Year 1998 -5.05 -9.28 0.54 0.0003
Year 1999 -12.74 -15.11 -9.50 0.0371
Year 2000 -9.09 -12.09 -5.08 <0.0001

*Direct medical costs of LD included costs of physician visits, consultation, serologic testing, procedure, therapy, hospitalization/ER, and other relevant costs. Patients were divided into 5 diagnosis groups: clinically defined early-stage LD, clinically defined late-stage LD, suspected LD, tick bite, and other related complaints. All costs were converted to 2000 equivalent.
†CI, confidence interval.
‡Baseline costs refer to those costs accrued by a female patient who had tick bite only (with no erythema migrans symptoms), diagnosed in 1997 during an office visit. She had no hospital or ER stay, no serologic tests, no consultation, no therapy, and no other procedures (R2 = 0.67).
§Additional direct medical costs are added or subtracted to the baseline costs for each variable of interest if significant (see Appendix 3 for details).
¶Serologic test (yes = 1, no = 0) refers to patients who had serologic test (e.g., enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or Western blotting test).
#Procedure (yes = 1, no = 0) refers to patients who had other procedures that were not performed in hospital/ER, consultation, or physician office.
**Hospitalization/ER (yes = 1, no = 0) refers to patients who had hospital or ER stay.
††Consultation (yes = 1, no = 0) refers to patients who received consultation from other physicians.
‡‡Therapy (yes = 1, no = 0) refers to patients who had therapy charges including antimicrobial agents and additional costs associated (e.g., registered nurse home visits).
§§Miscellaneous (yes = 1, no = 0) refers to patients who had other appropriate charges such as charges for additional laboratory tests.
¶¶ Refers to patients with erythema migrans (yes = 1, no = 0).
##Age is a continuous variable and refers to each additional year of age of the patient.

Main Article

1Current affiliation: Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Page created: January 19, 2012
Page updated: January 19, 2012
Page reviewed: January 19, 2012
The conclusions, findings, and opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.
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