TY  - JOUR
T1  - Economic Impact of Hand and Wrist Injuries: Health-Care Costs and Productivity Costs in a Population-Based Study
AU  - de Putter, C.E.
AU  - Selles, R.W.
AU  - Polinder, S.
AU  - Panneman, M.J.M.
AU  - Hovius, S.E.R.
AU  - van Beeck, E.F.
Y1  - 2012/05/02
N1  - 10.2106/JBJS.K.00561
JO  - The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery
SP  - e56 1
EP  - 7
VL  - 94
IS  - 9
N2  - Background: 
  Injuries to the hand and wrist account for approximately 20% of patient visits to emergency departments and may impose a large economic burden. The purpose of this study was to estimate the total health-care costs and productivity costs of injuries to the hand and wrist and to compare them with other important injury groups in a nationwide study.Methods: 
  Data were retrieved from the Dutch Injury Surveillance System, from the National Hospital Discharge Registry, and from a patient follow-up survey conducted between 2007 and 2008. Injury incidence, health-care costs, and productivity costs (due to absenteeism) were calculated by age group, sex, and different subgroups of injuries. An incidence-based cost model was used to estimate the health-care costs of injuries. Follow-up data on return to work rates were incorporated into the absenteeism model for estimating the productivity costs.Results: 
  Hand and wrist injuries annually account for $740 million (in U.S. dollars) and rank first in the order of most expensive injury types, before knee and lower limb fractures ($562 million), hip fractures ($532 million), and skull-brain injury ($355 million). Productivity costs contributed more to the total costs of hand and wrist injuries (56%) than did direct health-care costs. Within the overall group of hand and wrist injuries, hand and finger fractures are the most expensive group ($278 million), largely due to high productivity costs in the age group of twenty to sixty-four years ($192 million).Conclusions: 
  Hand and wrist injuries not only constitute a substantial part of all treated injuries but also represent a considerable economic burden, with both high health-care and productivity costs. Hand and wrist injuries should be a priority area for research in trauma care, and further research could help to reduce the cost of these injuries, both to the health-care system and to society.
SN  - 0021-9355
M3  - doi: 10.2106/JBJS.K.00561
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.2106/JBJS.K.00561
ER  -