The Cost of Sinusitis – Nearly $6 Billion Annually

by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD

Auditing the Cost

There are very few studies on the costs of various illnesses.  As you might imagine it is difficult to arrive at accurate estimates of just how many people actually have an illness over the span of a year, and what the costs are related to that illness – each person has a different history, course of illness, might treat with over-the-counter medications, might or might not see a physician who might or might not treat with medications; they may have complications from their illness, possibly requiring surgical intervention, etc.  These are difficult things to audit, to detect and to track.

Limited Information

Despite these difficulties, there have been 2 or 3 reports on the annual costs of sinusitis, and the estimates are staggering:  without considering the impact on lost days at work and lost productivity for adults, and given that the number of people affected each year by sinusitis (in 1999) was 37 million, the annual direct health care expenditure for sinusitis is nearly $6 billion.

The Pediatric Portion

Children are estimated to be approximately 1/3 of this total!  Considering that children under the age of 18 comprise less than ¼ of the total population of the US, these findings support my own clinical impression that children represent a disproportionate population with sinusitis, and a higher share of the cost of sinusitis.

An Under-Estimate

This estimate of nearly $6 billion is regarded as an underestimate because it includes only a portion of the costs of various medical testing (CT scans, blood tests, etc.).

These estimates do not consider the various co-morbidities (linked diseases) that are triggered by sinusitis either – asthma.

Alternative Remedies Not Accounted For

Similarly, these estimates ignore the billions of dollars that are also spent on complementary, alternative, holistic remedies (depending on the diagnosis, anywhere from 30% to greater than 60% of us turn to alternative remedies when we become ill. For example, it is estimated that at least 60% of cancer patients reject medical and surgical advice and turn to natural remedies http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31088185/ns/health-alternative_medicine/) .

Growing Stronger Bugs

Sinusitis is the most common respiratory illness, and is the 5^th most common reason for prescribing antibiotics, accounting for 12% of all prescriptions.  Since that study was published in 1999, the prevalence of antibiotic resistance among bacteria has steadily increased.  The result has been a need to prescribe “stronger,” more expensive antibiotics that have a broader spectrum of activity, pushing the cost up even further.

Not only does the use of these broad-coverage antibiotics increase cost, but they also increase the risk of reducing good, beneficial bacteria that are essential for our health.  One encouraging bit of information was that surgery accounted for less than 10% of the direct health care costs associated with sinusitis – it is heartening to know that our Ear, Nose & Throat surgeons are generally conservative with surgical intervention, saving it for complicated or particularly resistant cases of sinusitis.  This is especially important in our approach for sinusitis in children, a topic that will be discussed at length in other posts.

Note that the estimate of $6 Billion was made in 2000 at the time this report was compiled, and of course much of that information was from prior to that.  Even then, $6 Billion was an underestimate as noted above.  One can only speculate on how much that cost has increased in the decade since; certainly the cost has not decreased.

Thanks for visiting, and see you here again.  I appreciate your comments and questions.  Keep ‘em coming.  Please, “be excellent to one another.”

Best of health and success to you and your families.

Until next time, remember … you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose (unless you’re a boogor doctor :~D)

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I promise to continue to work hard to help empower you with knowledge: to improve your health and the health of your children. RF

Resources:

C. Gross, R. Schlosser. Prevalence and economic impact of rhinosinusitis.  Current Opinion in Otolaryngology & Head and Neck Surgery.  Vol. 9(1): 8-10; 2001.

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Tags: child, childhood, cost, ENT, pediatric Ear Nose and Throat, pediatric sinusitis