Prevalence and cost of musculoskeletal disorders: a population-based, public hospital system healthcare consumption approach. Osborne, Richard, Nikpour, Mandana, Busija, Lucy, Sundararajan, Vijaya and Wicks, Ian 2007, Prevalence and cost of musculoskeletal disorders: a population-based, public hospital system healthcare consumption approach., Journal of rheumatology, vol. 34, no. 12, pp. 2466-2475. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads Title Prevalence and cost of musculoskeletal disorders: a population-based, public hospital system healthcare consumption approach. Author(s) Osborne, Richard Nikpour, Mandana Busija, Lucy Sundararajan, Vijaya Wicks, Ian Journal name Journal of rheumatology Volume number 34 Issue number 12 Start page 2466 End page 2475 Publisher Journal of Rheumatology Pub. Co. Place of publication Toronto, Canada Publication date 2007-12 ISSN 0315-162X 1499-2752 Summary Objective: To use a population-level, public-hospital approach to compare the prevalence and cost of musculoskeletal diseases (MSD) with other clinical specialties. Methods: A healthcare utilization survey of 4 million individual records over 4 years, from all major public hospitals in the state of Victoria (estimated population 4.8 million residents in 2000/01) from 1997/98 to 2000/01. Main outcome measures were inpatient episodes of care, bed-days, and outpatient clinic encounters. MSD was defined as the combination of orthopedics and rheumatology. Results: After obstetrics, MSD was the most frequent outpatient service, with orthopedics accounting for 9.9% of all visits in 2000/01. The proportion of MSD outpatient encounters (on average 11.6% of the total) was constant over the study period. Among 26 medical specialties, MSD had the sixth highest number of inpatient episodes (6.2% in 2000/01), following renal dialysis (14.6%), general surgery (8.2%), obstetrics (7.6%), gastroenterology (7.1%), and general medicine (6.7%). MSD was the fifth highest consumer of bed-days, occupying on average 7.7% of all beds per annum in the period 1997/98 to 2000/01, behind psychiatry (10.1%), respiratory medicine (8.5%), rehabilitation (8.3%), and general medicine (7.8%). MSD was the third most-costly discipline in 2000/01, with total costs of over A dollars 169 million (9.7% of total inpatient costs that year), behind respiratory medicine (11.6%) and general surgery (11.5%). Conclusion: Compared to other diseases, MSD consumes a substantial proportion of healthcare resources in Victorian public hospitals. These data have important implications for allocation of healthcare resources, clinical care pathways, and prevention strategies. Language eng Field of Research 110399 Clinical Sciences not elsewhere classified Socio Economic Objective 970111 Expanding Knowledge in the Medical and Health Sciences HERDC Research category C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Grant ID NHMRC 400391 Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30019420 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Health School of Health and Social Development Related Links Link Description Connect to published version (restricted access) Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Versions Version Filter Type Mon, 14 Sep 2009, 14:22:18 EST Mon, 14 Sep 2009, 14:25:12 EST Tue, 15 Sep 2009, 09:30:27 EST Mon, 30 Nov 2009, 10:08:31 EST Thu, 25 Feb 2010, 10:43:47 EST Thu, 18 Oct 2012, 11:33:09 EST Mon, 16 Jun 2014, 12:48:48 EST Wed, 27 Aug 2014, 22:03:04 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 9 times in TR Web of Science Cited 13 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 916 Abstract Views, 0 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Mon, 14 Sep 2009, 14:22:16 EST by Lorraine Driscoll