Vitamin D Status in Veterans With Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Relationship to Health Care Costs and Services

Authors: Atia, Antwan1; Murthy, Ravindra2; Bailey, Beth A.3; Manning, Todd4; Garrett, Linda L.5; Youssef, Dima4; Peiris, Alan N.1
1: Department of Internal Medicine, East Tennessee State University, PO Box 70622, Johnson City, TN 37614.
2: Department of Internal Medicine, Mountain Home VAMC, Mountain Home, TN 37684.
3: Department of Family Medicine, East Tennessee State University, PO Box 70621, Johnson City, TN 37614.
4: Department of Medicine, Mountain Home VAMC, Medicine Service 111, Mountain Home, TN 37684.
5: College of Nursing, East Tennessee State University, PO Box 70664, Johnson City, TN 37614.
Military Medicine, Volume 176, Number 6, June 2011 , pp. 711-714(4)

Vitamin D deficiency is a global pandemic associated with increased health care costs and could play a role in the pathogenesis and management of inflammatory bowel disease. This study examined vitamin D status in veterans with ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) and assessed its relationship to health care costs and service utilization. Veteran patients (n = 125) with UC or CD and with an available 25-hydroxyvitamin D level were studied. CD patients were more likely to be vitamin D insufficient than the UC group. Despite the higher vitamin D levels among UC patients, they were significantly more likely to utilize laboratory and pharmacy services compared with CD patients, whereas patients with CD had significantly higher radiology and pharmacy costs.
Thus, it is likely that disease-specific characteristics rather than vitamin D status determine the costs of health care services in veterans with established inflammatory bowel disease.

Publication date: 2011-06-01
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See also Vitamin D Life

• IBD less costly when treated with vitamin D3 compared to D2 – Jan 2012 some of the same authors
• Crohn’s disease deficient in vitamin K – IBD deficient in vitamins K and D – April 2011
• VA found less testing for vitamin D resulted in increased health costs – Jan 2012
• IBD and Crohn but not Colitis associated with low vitamin D – May 2011
• Extra Vitamin D needed for Crohns
• All items in Cost Savings due to Vitamin D 138 items
• All items in category gut and vitamin D 168 items