Medical costs of patients with hypertension and/or diabetes: A 10-year follow-up study of National Health Insurance in Shiga, Japan.
METHODS
A cohort study investigating medical costs associated with the combination of hypertension and diabetes was conducted. The participants included 4535 community-dwelling Japanese individuals, aged 40-69 years, who were classified into the following four categories: 'Neither hypertension nor diabetes', 'Hypertension alone', 'Diabetes alone' or 'Both hypertension and diabetes'. Medical costs per person per month were compared among the four categories.


CONCLUSIONS
Of the study population, 1.3% had both hypertension and diabetes. During the 10-year follow-up period, participants with both hypertension and diabetes incurred higher medical costs, as compared with those without hypertension, diabetes or their combination, even after adjustment for other confounding factors.
Nakamura
Koshi
K
Department of Health Science, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu City, Shiga, Japan. ksnkmr@belle.shiga-med.ac.jp
Okamura
Tomonori
T
Kanda
Hideyuki
H
Hayakawa
Takehito
T
Okayama
Akira
A
Ueshima
Hirotsugu
H
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000191:economics*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000191:economics*; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000191:economics; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models