A Comparison of Costs and Health Care Utilization for Veterans with Traumatic and Nontraumatic Spinal Cord Injury

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the largest system of care for individuals with spinal cord injury/disorder (SCI/D) in the world. This article compares demographics, utilization, diagnoses, and associated costs between veterans with traumatic and nontraumatic SCI/D. Regression analyses were used to predict the effect of injury etiology on patient utilization and cost after controlling for covariates. Veterans with a nontraumatic SCI/D were significantly older with a greater number of comorbidities and outpatient utilization; however, there was no difference in health care costs between groups, and injury etiology was not a significant predictor of cost. Recommendations for future research based on these findings are offered.