Health Care Resource Utilization and Costs for Adults With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury With Chronic Vestibular Impairment

Objective: To quantify the economic burden of all-cause health care resource utilization (HCRU) among adults with and without chronic vestibular impairment (CVI) after a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Setting: IQVIA Integrated Data Warehouse. Participants: People with mTBI+CVI (n=20,441) matched on baseline age, sex, year of mTBI event, and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score to people with mTBI only (n=20,441) (N=40,882). Main Outcome Measures: All-cause health HCRU and costs at 12 and 24 months post mTBI diagnosis. Results: People with mTBI+CVI had significantly higher all-cause HCRU and costs at both time points than those with mTBI only. Multivariable regression analysis showed that, when controlling for baseline variables, costs of care were 1.5 times higher for mTBI+CVI than mTBI only. Conclusions: People who developed CVI after mTBI had greater overall HCRU and costs for up to 2 years after the injury event compared with people who did not develop CVI after controlling for age, sex, region, and CCI score. Further research on access to follow-up services and effectiveness of interventions to address CVI is warranted. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 2022;103:90-7 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.

Automated summary

The study quantified the economic burden of all-cause health care resource utilization among adults with chronic vestibular impairment (CVI) after a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) compared to those without CVI. Results showed that, after controlling for baseline variables, the costs of care for CVI patients were 1.5 times higher than those without CVI.