title: Lifetime medical expenditures among hypertensive men and women in the United States.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our objective was to estimate lifetime medical expenditures that can be attributed to hypertension, by gender, in the United States, given important gender differences in both survival and medical expenditures.
  
  
  METHODS
  We estimated lifetime medical expenditures among hypertensive and nonhypertensive men and women aged 20 and older. Expenditures were estimated from the 2001 to 2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and life expectancies were estimated from the 1986 to 2002 National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality Files. Assuming that medical technology, the cost of health care services, the incidence of disease, and survival were fixed, the cross-sectional age-specific expenditures and the survival profiles were used to estimate the lifetime expenditures from ages 20 to older than 85.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The estimated lifetime expenditure for an average life table individual at age 20 was $188,300 for hypertensive men and $254,910 for hypertensive women; however, a greater share of lifetime expenditures can be attributed to hypertension among men ($88,033) than among women ($40,960).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although hypertensive women had greater lifetime expenditures than hypertensive men, hypertension was associated with a greater increase in lifetime expenditures for men than for women. Gender differences in both survival and health care utilization have important implications for gender differences in lifetime medical expenditures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA. BasuR@pharmacy.ucsf.edu
authors.forename: Rituparna
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Basu
authors.forename: Patrick M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Krueger
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Lairson
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Franzini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006296:Health Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000191:economics*; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult