Understanding and modelling the economic impact of spinal cord injuries in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Study design: Economic modelling analysis.

Objectives: To determine lifetime direct and indirect costs from initial hospitalisation of all expected new traumatic and non-traumatic spinal cord injuries (SCI) over 12 months.

Setting: United Kingdom (UK).

Methods: Incidence-based approach to assessing costs from a societal perspective, including immediate and ongoing health, rehabilitation and long-term care directly attributable to SCI, as well as aids and adaptations, unpaid informal care and participation in employment. The model accounts for differences in injury severity, gender, age at onset and life expectancy.

Results: Lifetime costs for an expected 1270 new cases of SCI per annum conservatively estimated as £1.43 billion (2016 prices). This equates to a mean £1.12 million (median £0.72 million) per SCI case, ranging from £0.47 million (median £0.40 million) for an AIS grade D injury to £1.87 million (median £1.95 million) for tetraplegia AIS A-C grade injuries. Seventy-one percent of lifetime costs potentially are paid by the public purse with remaining costs due to reduced employment and carer time.

Conclusions: Despite the magnitude of costs, and being comparable with international estimates, this first analysis of SCI costs in the UK is likely to be conservative. Findings are particularly sensitive to the level and costs of long-term home and residential care. The analysis demonstrates how modelling can be used to highlight economic impacts of SCI rapidly to policymakers, illustrate how changes in future patterns of injury influence costs and help inform future economic evaluations of actions to prevent and/or reduce the impact of SCIs.

Fig. 1

Overview of model structure

Fig. 2

Mean lifetime costs of new spinal cord injuries by type and gender (2016 £ millions)

Fig. 3

Mean lifetime costs per new tetraplegic traumatic spinal cord injury by age-group and gender (2016 £ millions)