estimate costs for in-and outpatients. RESULTS: Among the 264_PAND and 132_POST inpatients, 30% were Ͻ18 years old, and 45% were women. The mean length of stay at general ward was of 6.5(6.1)-7.0(6.6) days (PAND and POST, respectively); and between 8.2(5.0) and 11.5(15.2) days for ICU patients (7%_PAND and 20%_POST). Among employed (45.3% PAND and 37.7% POST) most went on sick leave (99% and 93%) for about 31(37) and 38(27) days. Among outpatients (215_PAND and 175_POST), about 25-35% were under 17 years old, and 50-57% were women. The 94%(PAND) and 82%(POST) of employed (64,9% and 68,0%, respectively) went on sick leave. Absenteeism length of was 11(12)-7(45) days. The mean cost per inpatient was 6,028 € (SDϭ6,251) in PAND and 6,939€(SDϭ10,895) in POST. For outpatients the mean cost was 749€ (SDϭ886) in PAND and 421€ (SDϭ686) in POST. CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to what expected, resource utilization was quite similar for both influenza waves. However, differences on mean cost were found due to the slightly increase in inpatients health care utilization, and the decrease of absenteeism among outpatients during the post-pandemic wave. These results would be useful to assess the influenza real burden in Spain; both at individual and population level.
OBJECTIVES:To estimate direct medical costs of atopic dermatitis (AD) from a US payer perspective. METHODS: Data came from a large employer-based longitudinal claims database, which captures person-specific clinical utilization, expenditures, and enrollment across inpatient, outpatient, prescription drug, and carveout services. A matched case-control study design was employed. Cases were identified based on at least two AD-related medical claims with an International Classification of Disease v9 codes of 691.8x or 692.x anytime during the calendar year of 2009. Three controls were matched to each case based on age, gender, type of health plan enrolled, and censes region. Multivariate robust regression models were used to estimate the incremental burden of AD. A non-parametric bootstrap technique with 1000 replications was used to estimate the distribution of the beta coefficients and derive the 95% confidence limits. RESULTS: A total of 119,252 cases were matched to 357,756 controls with an average age of 46 years (SDϭ23.9), and 57% females. AD-related comorbidities such as allergic rhinitis, asthma, other types of allergies, sleep disturbances and attention deficit disorders were significantly greater (pϽ0.01) in proportion among cases vs. controls. After adjusting for all baseline differences, cases on an average had $912 (95% CL:$781-$1,042) greater overall cost per subject compared to controls. Top three drivers were attributed to outpatient costs (58%, $533), inpatient costs (22%, $201), and pharmacy costs (15%, $139), respectively. Among cases, dermatology-related overall costs were 370% (from $127 to $470) greater post index event. Over 80% of this increase was attributable to dermatology-related outpatient costs. Approximately, three additional dermatology-related o...