Estimated Lifetime Medical and Work-Loss Costs of Emergency Department–Treated Nonfatal Injuries — United States, 2013

Weekly

October 2, 2015 / 64(38);1078-1082

Curtis Florence, PhD1; Tamara Haegerich, PhD2; Thomas Simon, PhD3; Chao Zhou, PhD1; Feijun Luo, PhD1

A large number of nonfatal injuries are treated in U.S. emergency departments (EDs) every year. CDC's National Center for Health Statistics estimates that approximately 29% of all ED visits in 2010 were for injuries (1). To assess the economic impact of ED-treated injuries, CDC examined injury data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System–All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP) (2) for 2013, as well as injury-related lifetime medical and work-loss costs from the Web-Based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS). NEISS-AIP collects data from a nationally representative sample of EDs, using specific guidelines for recording the primary diagnosis and mechanism of injury. Number of injuries, crude- and age-specific injury rates, and total lifetime work-loss costs and medical costs were calculated for ED-treated injuries, stratified by sex, age groups, and intent and mechanism of injury. ED-treated injuries were further classified as those that were subsequently hospitalized or treated and released. The rate of hospitalized injuries was 950.8 per 100,000, and the rate of treated and released injuries was 8,549.8 per 100,000. Combined medical and work-loss costs for all ED-treated injuries (both hospitalized and treated and released) were $456.9 billion, or approximately 68% of the total costs of $671 billion associated with all fatal and ED-treated injuries. The substantial economic burden associated with nonfatal injuries underscores the need for effective prevention strategies.

Numbers of ED-treated injuries, rates, and lifetime cost estimates by age and sex of the patient and by mechanism and intent of injury were analyzed using WISQARS (3). Rates were calculated using the U.S. Census Bureau's bridged race population estimates for 2013. Lifetime medical and work-loss costs were calculated from average costs of treating nonfatal injuries and earnings in 2010, adjusted to 2013 prices. Lifetime work-loss is the estimated wages lost because of time away from work while recovering from the injury, and the loss of income incurred for injuries that lead to permanent disability. For each ED-treated injury record, lifetime work-loss costs and medical costs were assigned using the age and sex of the injured person, along with the injury diagnosis and mechanism (4). Work-loss and medical costs for nonfatal injuries were developed from various sources, including days of work missed because of injury, from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) Medical Expenditure Panel Survey; hospital costs, from the Health Care Cost and Utilization Project; earnings data, from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey; and life expectancy data, from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. Number of injuries, rates, and total lifetime medical and work-loss costs were estimated for 2013, stratified by sex, age and intent of injury. Differences by race and ethnicity were not examined because those data are not available in the WISQARS nonfatal injury reports. The distribution of costs by mechanism of injury and ED discharge disposition of treatment (i.e., hospitalized or treated and released) was also assessed for seven selected mechanisms. Finally, the costs of ED-treated nonfatal injuries were compared with those of fatal injuries presented in another MMWR report (5).

For all ED-treated nonfatal injuries, the total costs were $456.9 billion; 63% of these costs were for hospitalized injuries, for which the total estimated lifetime medical and work-loss costs were $289.7 billion (Table 1). Approximately 65% of these costs were accounted for by males; these costs were also concentrated in the adult population, with more than three quarters of the cost being for persons aged ≥25 years. Unintentional injuries accounted for $253.5 billion in lifetime costs, or about 87% of costs for hospitalized injuries. Assault injuries and self-harm injuries (defined as an injury or poisoning resulting from a deliberate violent act inflicted on oneself) accounted for $26.4 billion and $11.3 billion of lifetime costs, respectively. Approximately 85% of costs for hospitalized assault injuries were borne by males ($22.5 billion), whereas costs for hospitalized self-harm injuries were more similar among males ($6.5 billion) and females ($4.7 billion). Costs for hospitalized violent injuries were concentrated among adults aged 15–44 years, with 72% of costs for assaults and 67% of self-harm costs accounted for by these age groups. In contrast, adults aged ≥45 years accounted for 59% of costs associated with hospitalized injuries that were unintentional.

Total estimated costs for injuries for which patients were treated and released were $167.1 billion (Table 2). Approximately 58% of these costs were accounted for by males ($96.2 billion), and 71% for persons aged <45 years. A very large share of these costs ($156.1 billion [93%]) was for unintentional injuries. Assault injuries and self-harm injuries accounted for $9.8 billion and $627 million in costs, respectively. Males accounted for about two thirds of assault costs ($6.4 billion), whereas females accounted for 60% of the self-harm costs ($377 million). Rates for nonfatal treated and released injuries from assaults and self-harm were highest among those aged 15–24 years, followed by those aged 25–44 years. Persons aged 15–44 years accounted for a large share of assault (83%) and self-harm costs (79%), whereas costs for unintentional treated and released injuries were more evenly distributed among age groups.

Although unintentional injuries account for a large majority of nonfatal injuries and their associated costs, intentional injuries are more costly on a per case basis (Figure 1). Overall, the mean medical and work-loss cost for an ED-treated nonfatal injury (including both hospitalized patients and patients treated and released) was $15,211; among unintentional injuries, the mean cost was $14,685, whereas the mean cost of an assault injury was $23,034. Self-harm injuries were the most costly on a per case basis ($25,121). Assaults and self-harm have considerably higher lifetime medical care costs, and assaults have higher work-loss costs than unintentional injuries.

Lifetime costs for ED-treated injuries were associated with a range of injury mechanisms (Figure 2), and in many cases, these mechanisms differed from those that accounted for fatal injury costs (5). For all ED-treated nonfatal injuries, 37% of costs were associated with injuries from falls, and 21% from transportation-related injuries. All poisonings accounted for only 2.6% of nonfatal injury costs; however, among fatal injuries (5), drug poisonings, a subset of all poisonings, accounted for the highest percentage of costs (27.4%) (5). Although firearm-related injuries accounted for approximately one fifth of costs associated with fatal injuries (5), they represent slightly more than 1% of costs from nonfatal injuries. Hospitalized injury costs were primarily associated with falls (41%) and transportation (25%). A large share of costs related to injuries that were treated and released were also associated with falls (30%), whereas other mechanisms, such as overexertion, accounted for a higher percentage of costs than for hospitalized injuries (14%).

Discussion

In addition to the recognized health, psychological, emotional, and social consequences of injury, ED-treated nonfatal injuries resulted in substantial costs for the U.S. health care system, as well as substantial work-loss costs in 2013; these costs provide a strong incentive to prevent injury. Although almost 90% of all ED-treated injury costs were associated with unintentional injuries, the costs per case were 57% higher for injuries resulting from assaults and 71% higher for injuries resulting from self-harm than for unintentional injuries.

Various mechanisms account for nonfatal injury costs; some, such as falls and transportation-related injuries (primarily motor vehicle crashes), account for large shares of nonfatal and fatal injury costs; whereas others are differentially distributed. Falls account for approximately one third of all (treated and released and hospitalized) nonfatal medical and work-loss costs. Falls were also the fifth leading mechanism for fatal injury costs, so effective prevention of fall injuries, such as strength and balancing exercises for older adults, could result in a substantial reduction in lifetime medical and work-loss costs (5). Transportation-related injury (primarily motor vehicle crashes), a leading contributor to fatal injury costs, also accounts for the second largest share of nonfatal injury costs (5). Some mechanisms that account for a large share of fatal injury costs, such as firearms and drug poisonings, account for a relatively small share of nonfatal injury costs (5), likely a consequence of their higher lethality.

The findings in this report are subject to at least three limitations. First, the costs measured account for medical costs for physical injury only and lost productivity associated with nonfatal injuries initially treated in hospital EDs. Costs of injuries treated in other health care settings, or injuries that were not medically treated, were not ascertained. Second, additional costs (e.g., for mental health or psychological treatment and costs for the criminal justice and emergency response systems) were not considered, nor were costs that might be incurred years after the initial injury, as in the case of child maltreatment (6). Therefore, these estimates likely represent an underestimate of the complete cost of injury. Finally, intent of injury and mechanism were assigned by trained coders based on brief narratives abstracted from patients' medical records for which the level of detail on circumstances varied. Inaccuracies in the abstraction and coding process might have affected the distribution of cost by intent and mechanism.

Although nonfatal injuries treated in EDs are common and costly, appropriate implementation of evidence-based strategies can reduce nonfatal injuries from the mechanisms that lead to the greatest cost burden. For example, primary seat belt laws, motorcycle helmet laws, sobriety checkpoints, and alcohol interlocks are effective in preventing motor vehicle–related injuries and can produce substantial economic benefits that greatly exceed the implementation costs (7). The relatively high rate of injuries from assaults and self-harm among adolescents and young adults underscores the need for early prevention strategies that take advantage of the best available evidence to enhance youths' skills, family relationships, and social environments to reduce risk for violence-related injuries. One example is Life Skills Training, a middle school classroom-based program to reduce substance use, which is a risk factor for violent behavior (8,9). Finally, the ED might also be a useful setting for implementing prevention. Studies of some screening and brief intervention programs for reducing excessive alcohol use, which is a risk factor for both unintentional and violent injuries, have shown that this intervention can reduce the likelihood of a subsequent visit to the ED for injury or violence-related causes (10). Expanded implementation of evidence-based programs and policies to prevent injuries and violence can reduce not only the pain and suffering of victims but also the considerable societal costs.

1Division of Analysis, Research and Practice Integration, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC; 2Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC; 3Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC.

Corresponding author: Curtis Florence, cflorence@cdc.gov, 770-488-1398.

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