Comparing The National Economic Burden Of Five Chronic Conditions

Abstract

Using a nationally representative sample of 23,230 U.S. residents, we examine patterns of economic burden across five chronic conditions: mood disorders, diabetes, heart disease, asthma, and hypertension. Almost half of U.S. health care costs in 1996 were borne by persons with one or more of these five conditions; of that spending amount, only about one-quarter was spent on treating the conditions themselves and the remainder on coexistent illnesses. Each condition demonstrated substantial economic burden but also unique characteristics and patterns of service use driving those costs. The findings highlight the differing challenges involved in understanding needs and improving care across particular chronic conditions.T h e v a s t m a jo r i t y o f h ea l t h ex p e n d i t u r es in the United States are concentrated in a small number of persons, a large portion of whom are diagnosed with one or more chronic conditions. These high costs have been used as a rationale for many of the initiatives established to improve the care of chronic conditions. Total costs, however, provide limited information about the mechanisms leading to these conditions' economic burden. A deeper understanding of demographic and clinical characteristics and patterns of service use is needed to understand the needs and to improve the care of persons with chronic conditions. This study uses a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population to compare demographic characteristics and costs and

A review of the cost of cardiovascular disease

“…USA: In 1998, the direct costs of hypertension in the USA were calculated to be 12.6% of health care expenditures ($185 billion) when national health care expenditures were disaggregated to identify the burden of hypertension (31). A similar figure was found based on an analysis of the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (ie, $177 billion) (28).…”

“…Similar proportions for physician and drug costs were observed by Amin et al (25) when analyzing a Health Maintenance Organization database (hospitalization, 33%; physician visits, 28%; and drugs, 19%). In several studies, the cost of hypertension alone (ie, without comorbidities) represented only a small portion of the costs of hypertension: 13% in the study by Druss et al (28), 21% in the studies by Hodgson et al (31) and Amin et al (25), and 29% in the study by Garis and Farmer (29).…”

Are Co-Morbidities Associated with Guideline Adherence? The MI-Plus Study of Medicare Patients

“…Issues of multiple co-morbidities, particularly among elderly patients [2][3][4][5][6][7][8] , are beginning to receive attention, especially in diseases like diabetes, where the burden and mortality risk from comorbidities may outweigh risks from the disease itself [9][10][11][12][13][14][15] . Despite disease burden due to other major diseases, including coronary artery disease 16 , there has been less examination of guideline-concordance behavior patterns for diseases other than diabetes.…”

Comorbid conditions in men with ED before and after ED diagnosis: a retrospective database study

“…Early detection and treatment of ED-related conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and hypertension is important as these conditions and their complications present a substantial economic burden in terms of both health and work loss costs. [13][14][15] Thus, as ED may be a marker of other serious conditions, it is important for physicians to screen men for ED and associated conditions. 16,17 This retrospective database study examined the extent to which men in the US were newly diagnosed with comorbid conditions subsequent to an ED diagnosis.…”