Biomedical subjects

Todd Williamson

Publications and source records attributed to Todd Williamson.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Employees with overactive bladder: work loss burden.

OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the indirect work loss costs to employers as the result of employees with overactive bladder (OAB). METHODS: Study samples were drawn from an administrative database of 1.2 million beneficiaries, including medical and disability claims (1999-2002). OAB employees were compared with matched employees without OAB. RESULTS: OAB was associated with higher annual occurrences of work loss (P < 0.01). Employees with OAB had 2.2 excess work loss days as the result of medically related absenteeism and 3.4 excess days as the result of disability compared with employees without OAB (P < 0.01 for both comparisons). Employees with OAB had increased risk of disability (P < 0.01), and female employees with OAB had a higher risk of disability than male employees (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: This study found that OAB was associated with work loss costs to employers resulting from increased number of employee sick days and increased risk of employee disability.

Absenteeism↗

PubMed2004

The implications of poor medication persistence with treatment for overactive bladder.

Overactive bladder (OAB) affects more than 17 million Americans and accounts for more than dollar 12 billion annually in health care costs. To stem the costs of this disease and increase treatment effectiveness, pharmacological therapies must be taken as prescribed over time. Greater persistence with medication can improve clinical, economic, and humanistic outcomes in OAB. Therapeutic regimens must be effective and well tolerated by patients to create greater persistence and to help reduce health care costs among patients with OAB.

Disease Management↗

PubMed2003

Prevalence of arthritis and associated joint disorders in an employed population and the associated healthcare, sick leave, disability, and workers' compensation benefits cost and productivity loss of employers.

Arthritis is a common condition among the working population in the United States. Despite its high prevalence, the total cost of arthritis from the employer perspective has not been fully evaluated. This study quantifies the employer cost for additional health care, absence, disability, productivity, and workers' compensation costs related to arthritis and associated joint disorders (AJD) for a large sample of employees over 4 years. Results showed that AJD affected 15.5% of the employee population at some time. After adjusting for confounding factors, employees with AJD had significantly higher costs for health care ($998), prescription drug ($195), absence ($84), short-term disability ($184), long-term disability ($54), and workers' compensation ($287); totaling $1802. Adjusted productivity output was 4% lower for the AJD group, equal to $7454 in lost revenue (P < .05). Implications for an aging workforce are also discussed.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A pharmacoeconomic model comparing two long-acting treatments for overactive bladder.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the estimated first-line treatment costs of extended-release tolterodine versus controlled-release oxybutynin in patients with overactive bladder (OAB). METHODS: We developed a decision-analysis model to estimate the patterns of treatment, resource consumption, and cost impact of treating OAB with either controlled-release oxybutynin or extended-release tolterodine as first-line drug therapy. We used data from the published literature to develop the framework for the model and supplemented this information with expert opinion, where necessary. Based on recent clinical studies, we assumed equal efficacy between the comparators and reduced the model to a cost-minimization analysis. The model was constructed from the payer perspective, and all costs are given in 2000 U.S. dollars. RESULTS: A base-case analysis was generated showing that patients initiating therapy with extended-release tolterodine have probable average 3-month treatment costs of 1,207 dollars compared to 1,283 dollars for patients initiating with controlled-release oxybutynin, for a 6.3% difference. First-line OAB direct drug costs account for 19% and 15% of total costs for extended-release tolterodine and controlled-release oxybutynin, respectively. Sensitivity analysis showed these results to be relatively stable. CONCLUSION: The results from this analysis suggest that for patients with OAB and initiating long-acting pharmacologic therapy in the primary care setting, the treatment with extended-release tolterodine is slightly less costly than treatment with controlled-release oxybutynin. Studies directly comparing these treatment alternatives are needed, however, to determine which approach or combination of approaches is the most cost-effective.

Journal Article↗