Economic burden of chronic pain in Alberta, Canada

Although chronic pain (CP) is common, little is known about its economic burden in Alberta, Canada.

To estimate incremental (as compared to the general population or people without CP) societal (healthcare and lost productivity) costs of CP in Alberta.

We applied the prevalence estimated from the Canadian Community Health Survey data to the population retrieved from the Statistics Canada to estimate the number of people with CP in Alberta in 2019. We analyzed the Alberta Health administrative databases to estimate the healthcare costs of person with CP. Finally, we multiplied the number of people with the cost per person.

The prevalence of any CP was 20.1% and of activity-preventing CP was 14.5% among people aged > = 12 years. Incremental cost per person with CP per year was CA$2,217 for healthcare services (among people aged > = 12 years) and CA$8,412 for productivity losses (among people aged 18-64 years). Of the healthcare cost, prescription drugs accounted for the largest share (32.8%), followed by inpatient services (31.0%), outpatient services (13.1%), physician services (9.8%), other services (7.4%), and diagnostic imaging (5.8%). Provincially, total incremental cost of CP ranges from CA$1.2 to 1.7 billion for healthcare services (6% to 8% of total provincial health expenditure); and CA$3.4 to 4.7 billion for productivity losses. Considering costs for long-term care services, the total societal cost of CP in Alberta was CA$6.3 to 8.3 billion per year, reflecting 2.0% to 2.7% of Alberta's GDP.

Interventions improving CP prevention and management to reduce this substantial economic burden are urgently needed.