Age and proximity to death as predictors of GP care costs: results from a study of nursing home patients.
This paper reports the results of a study of GP costs associated with a group of nursing home patients who died at various stages during a 12-month period. The relationship between costs per month of care, patient age and proximity to death, where sex and diagnosis are controlled for are reported. A comparison of care costs for patients in their last year of life and those who survived the course of the study is also made. The study found that those in their last year of life were significantly more expensive to care for than those who survived the duration of the study, but that there was no statistically significant difference in age. In multivariate regression analyses, it was also found that among those who died during the study care costs were unrelated to age, but significantly related to proximity to death. The study supports the contention of others (Zweifel P, Felder S, Meiers M. Ageing of population and health care expenditure: a red herring? Health Econ 1999; 8: 485-496) that health care costs are more directly related to proximity to death than age.
O'Neill
C
C
School of Public Policy, Economics and Law, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. c.oneill2@ulst.ac.uk
Groom
L
L
Avery
A J
AJ
Boot
D
D
Thornhill
K
K
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000191:economics; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005194:Family Practice / Q000191:economics*; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D017059:Models, Econometric; D009026:Mortality; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009735:Nursing Homes; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012044:Regression Analysis; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016526:Workload / Q000191:economics