Health costs of sickle cell disease patients from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, 1996-1997, 2002-2003, 2007-2008

Abstract

Chronic conditions affect a person physically, mentally, emotion, socially, and financially. With the increase in technology and advancements in medicine, those with chronic conditions are living longer and spending more money to do so. Using Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data, sickle cell disease (SCD), a chronic, inherited anemia, was described showing the cost to society and the personal cost to the patients. Regression analysis was used to compare SCD to both cystic fibrosis (CF), a chronic, inherited disease of the mucus glands and, a healthy population. This study will describe the difference in direct and indirect health costs of two comparable chronic diseases receiving differing research money. Results indicate that SCD patients and CF patients are not significantly different regarding health status or indirect health costs, however, SCD patients have less prescriptions and prescription costs than CF patients, which were expected due to the probability of the SCD population containing sickle cell trait patients.