Vertigo and dizziness cause considerable more health care resource use and costs: results from the KORA FF4 study

Abstract

Objectives: Vertigo is a common reason for primary care consultations, and its diagnosis and treatment consume considerable medical resources. However, limited information on the specific cost of vertigo is currently available. The aim of this study is to analyse the health care costs of vertigo and examine which individual characteristics would affect these costs.

Study design: We used cross-sectional data from the German KORA ("Cooperative Health Research in the Augsburg Region") FF4 study in 2013.

Methods: Impact of personal characteristics and other factors was modelled using a two-part model. Information on health care utilisation was collected by self-report.

Results: We included 2277 participants with a mean age of 60.8 (SD = 12.4), 48.4% male. Moderate or severe vertigo was reported by 570 (25.0%) participants. People with vertigo spent 818 Euro more than people without vertigo in the last 12 months (2720.9 Euro to 1902.9 Euro, SD = 4873.3 and 5944.1, respectively). Consultation costs at primary care physicians accounted for the largest increase in total health care costs with 177.2 Euro (p < 0.01). After adjusting for covariates, the presence of vertigo increased both the probability of having any health care costs (OR = 1.6, 95% CI =[1.2;2.4]) and the amount of costs (exp(β) = 1.3, 95% CI = [1.1;1.5]). The analysis of determinants of vertigo showed that private insurance and a medium level of education decreased the probability of any costs, while higher income increased it.

Conclusions: The presence of vertigo and dizziness required considerable health care resources and created significantly more related costs in different health care sectors for both primary and pertinent secondary care.

Keywords: Analysis of health care markets; Cost of illness; Health care cost; Health data; Medical care; Population health; Two-part model; Vertigo.