The effect of usual source of care on the association of annual healthcare expenditure with patients’ age and chronic disease duration

Sungje Moon, Mankyu Choi

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    7 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Along with rapid population aging, the importance of chronic disease management increases with high growth of national healthcare expenditures, and efficient spending on healthcare is required to reduce unnecessary utilizations. For that reason, this study examined the association of annual healthcare expenditure with age and disease duration of chronic patients. Furthermore, the study investigated the effect of usual source of care (USOC) to suggest directions for preventive management of chronic disease. Using Korean Health Panel Study data, this study selected 1481 outpatients, who had out-of-pocket costs for hypertension or diabetes, and their total healthcare and chronic disease management (CDM) costs were examined. With patient aging, CDM cost decreased while the total healthcare cost increased, but longer duration of hypertension or diabetes resulted in increases in both CDM and total healthcare costs. In addition, the moderating effect of USOC indicated that elderly patients had increased CDM costs when they had a regular site for healthcare. In contrast, patients with longer duration had reductions in both CDM and total healthcare costs while having a regular doctor increased CDM cost. The results of this study could be an evidence for future policies to suggest proper preventive management plans for specific subjects.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number1844
    JournalInternational journal of environmental research and public health
    Volume15
    Issue number9
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2018 Sept

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

    Keywords

    • Chronic disease
    • Healthcare expenditure
    • Usual source of care

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
    • Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

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