Abstract
Purpose: :
To study trends of dry eye medication use and expenditures from 2001 to 2006 using a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults.
Methods: :
We retrospectively analyzed dry eye medication use and expenditures of participants of the 2001-2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a nationally representative subsample of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) which is a continuous multipurpose multistage area probability survey of the US civilian non-institutionalized population living at addressed dwellings. After adjusting for survey design and for inflation using 2009 inflation index, data from 147 unique participants age ≥18 years using prescription medication for dry eye syndrome and blepharitis were analyzed.
Results: :
Dry eye medication use and expenditures increased between the years 2001 and 2006 with the mean expenditure per patient per year being $55 in 2001-2 (n=29), $137 in 2003-4 (n=32), and $299 in 2005-6 (n=86). This finding was strongly driven by the introduction of Restasis in 2003 as 84% of prescriptions filled and 91% of expenditures in 2005-6 were related to Restasis. In analysis pooled over all survey years, demographic factors that impacted dry eye medication expenditures included gender (female: $244 versus male: $122, p<0.0001), ethnicity (non-Hispanic: $228 versus Hispanic: $106, p<0.0001), insurance status (private: $225 versus uninsured: $167, p=0.02), and education (greater than high school: $250 versus less than high school: $100, p<0.0001).
Conclusions: :
We found a trend of increasing dry eye medication use and expenditures from 2001 to 2006. Predictors of higher dry eye expenditures included female gender, non-Hispanics, those with private insurance, and those with greater than a high school education.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: health care delivery/economics/manpower • cornea: tears/tear film/dry eye