Disease burden on health care by pain severity and usual analgesic treatment in patients with symptomatic osteoarthritis: a Spanish nationwide health survey.

BACKGROUND

Osteoarthritis (OA) pain is a health care highly demanding and costing condition.

OBJECTIVE

To estimate disease burden on health care in OA in Spain, determining whether burden differs by pain severity and usual analgesic treatment.

METHODS

A cross-sectional design using the 2017-Spanish-National-Health-Survey was used to abstract data of 5,234 adult patients (women 70.8%; 69.9 years) with a self-reported physician OA diagnosis. Patients were assembled according to pain severity (no/mild, moderate, severe) and use of usual analgesia (treated [66.5%]/untreated). Healthcare resource utilization (HRU) and corresponding costs were expressed Per-Patient-Per-Year (PPPY) and adjusted for covariates.

RESULTS

Average (SD) healthcare cost was €2,274 (5,461) PPPY, with costs linked to outpatient medical visits being the major driver; ~43%. Adjusted PPPY medical visits, days of hospitalization, other healthcare visits, and corresponding costs were significantly higher in severe pain OA patients, compared to moderate or mild/no pain regardless of being currently treated with usual analgesics or not (p < 0.001). Treated OA patients showed higher HRU and costs than untreated patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Severity of pain was the main driver of HRU and costs in OA patients from a nationwide representative survey in Spain. These findings seem to be more consistent in treated versus not treated patients with usual analgesics.