The Impact of Depressive Symptoms on Healthcare Costs in Late Life: Longitudinal Findings From the AgeMooDe Study.
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry
; 25(2): 131-141, 2017 Feb.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-27931772
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
To examine whether depressive symptoms affect healthcare costs in old age longitudinally.DESIGN:
Multicenter prospective observational cohort study (two waves with nt1 = 1,195 and nt2 = 951) in Germany.SETTING:
Community.PARTICIPANTS:
Participants aged 75 years and older recruited via general practitioners. MEASUREMENTS Depressive symptoms were assessed by the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). The health-related resource use was measured retrospectively from a societal perspective based on a questionnaire, covering outpatient services, inpatient treatment, pharmaceuticals, as well as formal and informal nursing care. Hybrid regression models were used to determine the between- and within-effect of depressive symptoms on healthcare costs, adjusting for important covariates.RESULTS:
Six-month total cost increased from 3,090 (t1) to 3,748 (t2). The hybrid random effects models showed that individuals with more depressive symptoms had higher healthcare costs compared with individuals with less depressive symptoms (between-effect). Moreover, an intra-individual increase in depressive symptoms increased healthcare costs by 539.60 (within-effect) per symptom on GDS.CONCLUSIONS:
Our findings emphasize the economic importance of depressive symptoms in old age. Appropriate interventions to treat depressive symptoms in old age might also be a promising strategy to reduce healthcare costs.Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Costos de la Atención en Salud
/
Depresión
/
Servicios de Salud Mental
Tipo de estudio:
Clinical_trials
/
Diagnostic_studies
/
Health_economic_evaluation
/
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Qualitative_research
Límite:
Aged
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Aged80
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Female
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Humans
/
Male
País/Región como asunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry
Asunto de la revista:
GERIATRIA
/
PSIQUIATRIA
Año:
2017
Tipo del documento:
Article