@article {Osborne2466, author = {Richard H Osborne and Mandana Nikpour and Lucy Busija and Vijaya Sundararajan and Ian P Wicks}, title = {Prevalence and cost of musculoskeletal disorders: a population-based, public hospital system healthcare consumption approach.}, volume = {34}, number = {12}, pages = {2466--2475}, year = {2007}, publisher = {The Journal of Rheumatology}, abstract = {OBJECTIVE: To use a population-level, public-hospital approach to compare the prevalence and cost of musculoskeletal diseases (MSD) with other clinical specialties. METHODS: A healthcare utilization survey of 4 million individual records over 4 years, from all major public hospitals in the state of Victoria (estimated population 4.8 million residents in 2000/01) from 1997/98 to 2000/01. Main outcome measures were inpatient episodes of care, bed-days, and outpatient clinic encounters. MSD was defined as the combination of orthopedics and rheumatology. RESULTS: After obstetrics, MSD was the most frequent outpatient service, with orthopedics accounting for 9.9\% of all visits in 2000/01. The proportion of MSD outpatient encounters (on average 11.6\% of the total) was constant over the study period. Among 26 medical specialties, MSD had the sixth highest number of inpatient episodes (6.2\% in 2000/01), following renal dialysis (14.6\%), general surgery (8.2\%), obstetrics (7.6\%), gastroenterology (7.1\%), and general medicine (6.7\%). MSD was the fifth highest consumer of bed-days, occupying on average 7.7\% of all beds per annum in the period 1997/98 to 2000/01, behind psychiatry (10.1\%), respiratory medicine (8.5\%), rehabilitation (8.3\%), and general medicine (7.8\%). MSD was the third most-costly discipline in 2000/01, with total costs of over A dollars 169 million (9.7\% of total inpatient costs that year), behind respiratory medicine (11.6\%) and general surgery (11.5\%). CONCLUSION: Compared to other diseases, MSD consumes a substantial proportion of healthcare resources in Victorian public hospitals. These data have important implications for allocation of healthcare resources, clinical care pathways, and prevention strategies.}, issn = {0315-162X}, URL = {https://www.jrheum.org/content/34/12/2466}, eprint = {https://www.jrheum.org/content/34/12/2466.full.pdf}, journal = {The Journal of Rheumatology} }