Bladder, prostate and other urinary tract diseases cost Americans nearly $11 billion a year, according to a new report from the National Institutes of Health.
Medicare's share exceeded $5.4 billion.
The five most expensive urologic problems--accounting for $9.1 billion--are, in descending order, urinary tract infections, kidney stones, prostate and bladder cancers and benign prostate enlargement, according to the authors of Urologic Diseases in America. The report was published online this spring and will be available in print and on CD in early May.
"This research sharply illustrates the immense burden of urologic diseases and the importance of studies to preempt disease processes and develop targeted treatments," said Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., NIH Director.
Five years in the making, Urologic Diseases in America stitches together a patchwork of reliable data, both new and previously published, revealing numbers of people affected, treatment patterns and economic cost.
TOP 10 DISEASES BY COST
Total
Infection (Women & Men)
$3.5 Billion
Kidney Stones
$2.1 Billion
Prostate Cancer
$1.3 Billion
Bladder Cancer
$1.1 Billion
BPH/Prostate Enlargement
$1.1 Billion
Urinary Incontinence
$463.1 Million
Kidney Cancer
$401.4 Million
Erectile Dysfunction
$327.6 Million
Prostatitis
$84.4 Million
Interstitial Cystitis/PBS
$65.9 Million
"The data have broad implications for quality of care and access to care and helps to inform discussions about health care and research needs," said UDA coeditor Mark S. Litwin, M.D., M.P.H, a urologist at the David Geffen School of Medicine and School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Urologic Diseases in America describes more than a dozen diseases of children and adults, among them congenital abnormalities, erectile dysfunction, chronic prostatitis, interstitial cystitis, urinary incontinence and a chapter on sexually transmitted diseases, contributed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Findings include: