The joint impact of cardiovascular risk factors upon medical costs.
OBJECTIVE
The joint impact of obesity, hypertension, and hyperglycemia upon medical costs is not well known. Our objective was to evaluate the joint impact of these cardiovascular risk factors upon medical costs in the rural Japanese population.


METHODS
The data were derived from a 6-year prospective observation of National Health Insurance beneficiaries in rural Japan. Data on blood chemistry tests, blood pressure, weight, and height were obtained from an annual health check-up provided by the local municipalities in 1995. We prospectively collected data on medical costs over a 6-year period for 12,340 subjects (5306 men and 7034 women) without prior histories of cardiovascular disease or cancer.


RESULTS
Mean medical costs for individuals being overweight/obese, hypertensive, and hyperglycemic were 91.0% higher than those for individuals without any of these three cardiovascular risk factors. In this cohort, 17.2% of total medical costs were attributable to these three risk factors.


CONCLUSIONS
Overweight/obesity, hypertension, and hyperglycemia could have a large impact on health care resources in rural Japan.
Ohmori-Matsuda
Kaori
K
Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-8575, Japan. ohmori-k@umin.ac.jp
Kuriyama
Shinichi
S
Hozawa
Atsushi
A
Nakaya
Naoki
N
Shimazu
Taichi
T
Tsuji
Ichiro
I
D000368:Aged; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000191:economics* / Q000209:etiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006295:Health Resources; D006801:Humans; D006943:Hyperglycemia / Q000150:complications / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012423:Rural Health; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires