The prevalence of complications and healthcare costs during pregnancy.
OBJECTIVE
To study the economic burden of pregnancy in the US, common complications during pregnancy, and the incremental costs attributable to these complications.


METHODS
A retrospective comparative cohort study was conducted of pregnant women aged 15-49 years using de-identified medical and pharmacy claims from the Truven Health MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters database incurred between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2011. The total healthcare costs are reported (adjusted to 2011 dollars) from the date of the first pregnancy-related claim through to 3 months post-delivery and these costs were compared to matched controls of non-pregnant women. Pregnancy-related complications were categorized, and the incremental costs associated with each complication were estimated using multivariate analyses.


RESULTS
A total of 322,141 eligible women with live births were studied. Compared to matched controls, the average costs of care for pregnant women were nearly $13,000 higher through 3 months post-delivery. A total of 46.9% of women had at least one pre-specified pregnancy complication; the most commonly observed were fetal abnormality (24.7%) and early or threatened labor (16.3%). Multiple gestation (1.9%) resulted in the highest adjusted incremental cost ($12,212; 95% CI = 11,298, 13,216); hypertension ($6152; 95% CI = 5312, 6992) and diabetes ($5081; 95% CI = 4244, 5918) were also among those complications that led to high incremental costs of care.


CONCLUSION
Pregnancy and delivery are frequently compounded by complications that lead to increased costs and resource utilization.
['Law|Amy|A|', 'McCoy|Mark|M|', 'Lynen|Richard|R|', 'Curkendall|Suellen M|SM|', 'Gatwood|Justin|J|', 'Juneau|Paul L|PL|', 'Landsman-Blumberg|Pamela|P|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis D005260:Female D006296:Health Services D006801:Humans D007345:Insurance Claim Review D008875:Middle Aged D017059:Models, Econometric D011247:Pregnancy D011248:Pregnancy Complications D011256:Pregnancy Outcome D015995:Prevalence D012189:Retrospective Studies D012424:Rural Population D014481:United States D014505:Urban Population D055815:Young Adult
Costs Pregnancy Infants Maternal complications