The recently published study in Movement Disorders comparing the medical costs of people living with Parkinson's to people who have not been diagnosed with the disease.
How did they set up this study?
First, the Mayo Clinic selected 202 people with Parkinson's disease. Then, researchers matched each individual with Parkinson's disease to someone who was the same age and sex, but did not have PD.
The Costs
- Patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease for one year, spent an average of $581 more on health services than their peers.
- After five years the difference in annual health care expenses was only $118. (We suspect something strange and abnormal happened here.)
- Between five and 10 years after diagnosis, Parkinson's patients were using an average of $1,146 more of health resources than their peers free of Parkinson's disease.
- Patients living with a resting tremor actually had similar medical costs to people living free of PD. Conversely, Parkinson's patients without resting tremor averaged more than $2,000 per year in additional medical costs beyond their non-Parkinson's peers.
Source:
Movement Disorders, November 2006