Faculty Collaboration Database

Association of serious psychological distress with health services expenditures and utilization in a national sample of US adults. Gen Hosp Psychiatry 2011;33(4):311-7

Date

07/19/2011

Pubmed ID

21762826

DOI

10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2011.03.014

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-79960259117 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   35 Citations

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The Kessler six-item scale has been shown to be a valid and reliable measure of serious psychological distress (SPD) in community samples. We examined the effect of SPD on health service expenditures and utilization for seven categories in a national probability sample of community dwelling adults in the United States.

METHODS: We used the two-step sample selection model to examine the association between SPD and total, office-based, outpatient, emergency department (ED), inpatient, dental, home health and prescription expenditures and utilization in 18,330 US adults who participated in the 2007 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).

RESULTS: SPD was significantly associated with $1735 ( 95% CI: $702-2769) higher total expenditures, $285 higher office expenditures ( 95% CI: $30-539), $183 higher ED expenditures (95% CI: $64-303), $282 (95% CI: $62-503) higher home health expenditures, $614 (95% CI: $403-825) higher prescription expenditures and $41 (95% CI: -$103 to $22) lower dental expenditures. SPD was associated with 3.09 (95% CI: 2.09-4.08) more office visits, 0.27 (95% CI: 0.17-0.36) more ED visits, 0.84 (95% CI: 0.36-1.32) more inpatient visits, 2.93 (95% CI: 0.13-5.70) more home health visits, 8.13 (95% CI: 6.08-10.18) more prescriptions and 0.18 (95% CI: -0.30 to -0.07) less dental visits.

CONCLUSIONS: Among US adults, SPD is associated with significant increases in total expenditures and most other categories of expenditure and utilization. Targeted interventions to mitigate the adverse effects of SPD are needed.

Author List

Dismuke CE, Egede LE

Author

Leonard E. Egede MD Center Director, Chief, Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adult
Female
Health Expenditures
Health Services
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Stress, Psychological
United States