Estimated economic costs of overactive bladder in the United States.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the economic costs of overactive bladder (OAB), including community and nursing home residents, and to compare the costs in male versus female and older versus younger populations.


METHODS
The National Overactive Bladder Evaluation Program included a representative telephone survey of 5204 community-dwelling adults 18 years and older in the United States and a follow-up postal survey of all individuals with OAB identified and age and sex-matched controls. The postal survey asked respondents about bladder symptoms, self-care use, treatment use, work loss, and OAB-related health consequences. Survey data estimates were combined with year 2000 average cost data to calculate the cost of OAB in the community. Institutional costs were estimated from the costs of urinary incontinence in nursing homes, limited to only those with urge incontinence or mixed incontinence (urge and stress).


RESULTS
The estimated total economic cost of OAB was 12.02 billion dollars in 2000, with 9.17 and 2.85 billion dollars incurred in the community and institutions, respectively. Community female and male OAB costs totaled 7.37 and 1.79 billion dollars, respectively. The estimated total cost was sensitive to the estimated prevalence of OAB; therefore, we calculated the average cost per community-dwelling person with OAB, which was 267 dollars per year.


CONCLUSIONS
By quantifying the total economic costs of OAB, this study-the first obtained from national survey data-provides an important perspective of this condition in society. The conservative estimates of the total cost of OAB were comparable to those of osteoporosis and gynecologic and breast cancer. Although this provides information on the direct and indirect costs of OAB, quality-of-life issues must be taken into account to gain a better understanding of this condition.
Hu
Teh-Wei
TW
Department of Health Economics, University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, Warren Hall, Room 412, , Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Wagner
Todd H
TH
Bentkover
Judith D
JD
LeBlanc
Kristi
K
Piancentini
Amy
A
Stewart
Walter F
WF
Corey
Ron
R
Zhou
Steve Z
SZ
Hunt
Timothy L
TL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000191:economics; D005260:Female; D017721:Hospital Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000191:economics; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D001745:Urinary Bladder Diseases / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology