title: Healthcare utilization and comorbidity burden among children and young adults in the United States with systemic lupus erythematosus or inflammatory bowel disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We sought to assess the feasibility of using a health insurance claims database to estimate the prevalence and health care utilization and costs among children diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a retrospective analysis of the LifeLink insurance claims database for the years 2000-2006. Children (0-15 years) and young adults (16-25 years) with ≥ 2 diagnosis claims for SLE or IBD were selected as the 2 cohorts of interest. For each member of the SLE and IBD cohorts, 2 individuals were randomly selected for a matched comparison group. All the analyses were descriptive in nature, CI for differences between means and 2 proportions for measures including health care utilization, comorbidity burden were based on t tests and 2-group tests of proportions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We identified 278 patients with SLE (prevalence estimate: 7.9 per/100000 population) and 1174 patients with IBD (33.2 per/100000 population). The mean annual total medical costs was substantially higher for the SLE (difference: $22223; 95% CI: $14961-$29485) and IBD (difference: $16238; 95% CI: $14395-$18082) cohorts compared with those of the comparator cohort. We observed higher comorbidity burdens in the SLE and IBD cohorts than we saw in the comparator cohort.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Administrative claims data can be a useful tool for assessing the comparative prevalence and associated resource utilization of rare conditions such as SLE and IBD.
authors.affiliation: RTI Health Solutions, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194, USA. sjkarve@rti.org
authors.forename: Sudeep
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karve
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Candrilli
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Kappelman
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tolleson-Rinehart
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tennis
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Andrews
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015897:Comorbidity; D017281:Cost of Illness; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007345:Insurance Claim Review; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult