Health care utilization by migraine patients: A 1998 Medicaid population study

Background: In the last decade, a number of studies have documented the eco nomic impact of migraine headaches on society. Although previous research h as shown that patients with migraine headache consume a greater amount of h ealth care resources than those without migraine, the economic impact of th is condition on a Medicaid population has not been assessed. Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the health care resourc e utilization of patients with and without migraine headache in the Idaho M edicaid population. Methods: Idaho Medicaid claims from 1998 were reviewed to identify cases an d controls. Four controls, marched for age, sex, race, and residence, were obtained for each case. Physician services, hospital services, emergency ro om services, and prescription use were compared between the 2 groups. Multi variate analyses were performed to determine differences between the 2 grou ps after controlling for potential confounders. Results: Eighty percent of the cases were female, and 94% of the patients w ere white. Patients with migraine headache had statistically significantly higher health care resource consumption than matched controls (P < 0.05). T otal log costs for prescription use, physician services, and hospital servi ces were significantly higher (P < 0.001) in the migraine group even after controlling for migraine-associated comorbid conditions and demographic var iables. Conclusions: Total health care costs for migraine patients were 1.6 times h igher than for matched controls. The results of this study suggest that mig raine is a significant economic burden to the Medicaid program.