A Retrospective, Longitudinal, Claims-Based Comparison of Concomitant Diagnoses Between Individuals with and Without Down Syndrome

BACKGROUND: Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) experience various comorbidities in excess of the prevalence seen among the non-DS population. However, the extent of the excess burden of comorbidities specifically within commercially and publicly insured DS populations aged < 21 years is not currently known. OBJECTIVES: To (a) describe the most common diagnoses among individuals with DS who have either commercial or Medicaid insurance and (b) compare the prevalence of those diagnoses between DS cases and non-DS controls. METHODS: This was a longitudinal, retrospective study using health care claims of commercially insured and Medicaid-insured individuals in the Truven Health MarketScan Databases from 2008 to 2015. Individuals aged < 2, 2-5, 6-11, and 12-20 years with a DS diagnosis (cases; commercial: n = 15,948; Medicaid: n = 11,958) were matched to individuals without DS (controls; commercial: n = 47,844; Medicaid: n = 35,874) using a 1:3 ratio. The annual number of diagnoses was compared between cases ...