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Direct Cost Burden Among Insured US Employees
with Migraine
Hawkins K, Wang S, Rupnow M.
Posted: June 2008  
Headache   2008;48:553-563

Objective:   To provide a current estimate of the national direct health-care cost burden of illness associated with migraine among a US insured population.

Background:   Individuals with migraine use health-care resources more than those without migraine, incurring substantial costs to US employers.

Methods:   The burden of illness of migraine was defined as the difference in average total health-care expenditures per person between cohorts. The national burden of illness was defined as the average expenditure for migraine of national population estimates of privately insured individuals, and was estimated by projecting the migraine prevalence rate and average expenditure.

Results:   Patients with migraine had significantly higher average health-care expenditures compared with matched controls ($7007 vs. $4439 per person per year). Migraine-associated national expenditure estimates: outpatient care $5.21 billion; prescriptions, $4.61 billion; inpatient care, $0.73 billion; and emergency department care, $0.52 billion.

Conclusions:   The direct costs associated with patients with migraine were found to be $2571 per person per year higher than in matched nonmigraine controls. The projected national burden of migraine of $11.07 billion is substantially higher than previous estimates.