Economic burden of just 1 year of Legionnaires’ disease cases tops $835 million
Using published estimates of medical costs and new calculations of productivity losses, researchers estimated the economic burden of Legionnaires’ disease cases in just 1 year in the United States was more than $800 million.
“In the United States, reported cases of Legionnaires’ disease have been increasing since 2000, yet evidence suggests that many outbreaks are related to failures in building water system maintenance and might be preventable,” Madeleine Baker-Goering, PhD, an economist in the CDC’s Division of Global HIV and TB, and colleagues wrote. “Estimates of costs associated with Legionnaires’ disease could help inform prevention efforts.”
For their study, Baker-Goering and colleagues used 2014 estimates of disease incidence, health care utilization and medical costs of Legionnaires’ disease drawn from published sources. According to the study, they used estimates of waterborne and domestically acquired cases, hospitalizations and deaths and assumed all Legionnaires’ disease deaths occurred in hospitalized patients.
They estimated the associated costs, which comprised of medical expenses and productivity losses caused by premature death. They also estimated the costs associated with non-fatal hospitalized patients, which included medical expenses and productivity losses caused by missed work days.
The estimates revealed that the overall economic burden, which included medical costs and new calculations of productivity losses, was approximately $835 million in 2014. According to the study, researchers estimated approximately $21 million in productivity losses caused by absenteeism and another $412 million in productivity losses caused by premature deaths.
“Our analysis indicates that the economic burden of Legionnaires’ disease more than doubles when lifetime productivity losses are added to medical costs,” the authors wrote. “Our estimate can help demonstrate the value of investments in preventing Legionnaires’ disease, such as water management programs and outbreak investigations.”
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