Health care resource utilization and costs for adults with mild traumatic brain injury with chronic vestibular impairment

Abstract Objective To quantify the economic burden of all-cause health care resource utilization (HCRU) among adults with and without chronic vestibular impairment (CVI) following a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Design Retrospective matched cohort study. Setting IQVIA Integrated Data Warehouse. Participants People with mTBI+ CVI (n=20,441) matched on baseline age, sex, year of mTBI event, and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score to people with mTBI only (n=20,441). Interventions N/A Main Outcome Measures All-cause health HCRU and costs at 12- and 24-months post-mTBI diagnosis. Results People with mTBI+CVI had significantly higher all-cause HCRU and costs at both time points compared to those with mTBI only. Multivariable regression analysis showed that, when controlling for baseline variables, costs of care were 1.5 times higher for mTBI+CVI compared to mTBI only. Conclusions People who developed CVI following mTBI had greater overall HCRU and costs for up to 2 years following the injury event compared with people who did not develop CVI after controlling for age, sex, region, and CCI score. Further research on access to follow-up services and effectiveness of interventions to address CVI is warranted.