Higher annual health care expenditures and lower quality of life reported for individuals with rheumatoid arthritis<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
THURSDAY, Oct. 3, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with higher health care expenditures and suboptimal quality of life in U.S. adults, according to a study published online Aug. 6 in\u00a0ACR Open Rheumatology<\/em>.<\/p>\n Yinan Huang, Ph.D., from the University of Mississippi in Oxford, and colleagues estimated the economic and humanistic burden of RA among U.S. adults using self-reported data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (2018 to 2020).<\/p>\n The researchers found significantly higher total annual health care expenditures in the RA group versus the non-RA group (mean, $3,382.971). The RA group also had lower Short Form 12 Health Survey physical component summary scores (mean, 4.78) and lower mental component summary scores (mean, \u00e2\u0088\u00920.84). Compared with the non-RA group, the RA group also had increased odds of requesting assistance with activities of daily living (adjusted odds ratio, 2.02) and instrumental activities of daily living (adjusted odds ratio, 2.11).<\/p>\n “RA was associated with higher health care expenditures, particularly prescription medication costs, and was associated with suboptimal quality of life,” the authors write. “Prescribers should evaluate the health-related quality-of-life impact in prescribing treatment to adults with RA. Managed care professionals and payers should be aware of the high expenditures of RA due to high-cost prescription medications.”<\/p>\n