National estimate of the cost of Parkinson's disease medications 1999-2003

Parkinson's disease is a chronic, progressive disease with a prevalence rate of 1 out of 100 people over the age of 65, and 3 out of 100 for people over age 85.1 There is no cure for Parkinson's disease, therefore the goal of treatment is to control the signs and symptoms of the disease through prescription medications.2-4 At the national level, research is lacking in the area of prescription medication costs for Parkinson's disease. The purpose of this study was to estimate the cost of prescription medications for Parkinson's disease in the United States.Data from the1999-2003 Medical Expenditures Panel Survey were used to estimate the cost of prescription medications for Parkinson's disease. To test for a difference between costs of prescription medications for gender, a t-test was used. A series of one-way ANOVA analyses were used with each of the remaining demographic variables (age, marital status, income and region of residence) serving as the independent variable and the cost of Parkinson's disease as the dependent variable. A total of 2.6 million people reported having Parkinson's disease between 1999 and 2003. Over the five year period, these patients reported having just over 25 million prescriptions filled for Parkinson's medications at a cost of $2 billion. Statistically significant differences were found to exist for gender and region of residence. Because life expectancy is increasing and the risk of developing Parkinson's increases with age, this cost of prescription medications estimation has relevance for healthcare insurers, providers, administrators, policy makers and Parkinson's patients.