The Health-Care Utilization and Economic Burden in Patients with Genetic Skeletal Disorders

Background Most genetic skeletal disorders (GSD) were complex, disabling and life-threatening without effective diagnostic and treatment methods. However, its impacts on health system have not been well studied. The study aimed to systematically evaluate the health-care utilization and economic burden in GSD patients. Methods The patients were derived from 2018 Nationwide Inpatient Sample and Nationwide Readmissions Database. GSD patients were extracted based on International Classification of Diseases-10th revision codes. Results A total of 25,945 (0.12%) records regarding GSD were extracted from all 21,400,282 records in NIS database. GSD patients were likely to have significantly longer length of stay (6.50 ± 0.08 vs. 4.63 ± 0.002, P < 0.001), higher total charges ($85,180.97 ± 1,239.47 vs. $49,884.26 ± 20.99, P < 0.001), suffering more procedure, diagnosis and transferring records in comparison to patients with common conditions. GSD patients had a significantly higher 30-day all-cause readmission rate based on Nationwide Readmissions Database. Conclusions The heavy health-care utilization and economic burden emphasized the urgency for policy leaders, scientific and pharmaceutical researchers, health care providers and employers to identify innovative ways and take effective measurements immediately, and eventually to help improve the care, management, and treatment of these devastating diseases.