Health care service utilization among patients with bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis in a single payer healthcare system.

BackgroundThis study aims to investigate the differences in the utilization of healthcare services between patients with bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) and patients without using a population-based database in Taiwan.MethodsThis study comprised of 350 patients with BPS/IC and 1,750 age-matched controls. Healthcare resource utilization was evaluated in the one-year follow-up period as follows: number of outpatient visits and inpatient days, and the mean costs of outpatient and inpatient treatment. A multivariate regression analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between BPS/IC and total costs of health care services.ResultsFor urological services, patients with BPS/IC had a significantly higher number of outpatient visits (2.5 vs. 0.2, pConclusionsThis study found that patients with BPS/IC have a significantly higher number of healthcare related visits, and have significantly higher healthcare related costs than age-matched controls. The high level of healthcare services utilization accrued with BPS/IC was not necessarily exclusive for BPS/IC, but may have also been associated with medical co-morbidities.