title: Incremental Healthcare Service Utilization for Open-angle Glaucoma: A Population-Based Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate differences in the utilization of healthcare services between subjects with open-angle glaucoma (OAG) and comparison subjects without OAG using Taiwan's National Health Insurance population-based database.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study comprised 2204 subjects with OAG and 2204 sex-matched and age-matched subjects without OAG. We individually followed each subject for a 1-year period to evaluate their healthcare resource utilization. Outcome variables of the healthcare resource utilization were as follows: numbers of outpatient visits and inpatient days and the mean costs of outpatient and inpatient treatment. In addition, we divided healthcare resource utilization into ophthalmologic and nonophthalmologic services.
  
  
  RESULTS
  As for the utilization of ophthalmologic services, OAG subjects had significantly more outpatient visits (7.4 vs. 1.3, P<0.001) and significantly higher outpatient costs (US$272 vs. US$39, P<0.001) than comparison subjects. For nonophthalmologic services, OAG subjects also had significantly more outpatient visits (29.4 vs. 21.8, P<0.001) and significantly higher outpatient costs (US$1263 vs. US$847, P<0.001) than comparison subjects. Furthermore, OAG subjects incurred significantly higher inpatient costs compared with comparison subjects (US$434 vs. US$234, P<0.001). For all healthcare services, OAG subjects had significantly more outpatient visits (36.8 vs. 23.1, P<0.001) and significantly higher outpatient (US$1535 vs. US$887, P<0.001) and total (US$2245 vs. US$1122, P<0.001) costs than comparison subjects. In other words, the total cost was about 2-fold greater for OAG subjects than comparison subjects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We concluded that subjects with OAG had significantly higher utilization of all healthcare services than comparison subjects.
authors: *Department of Surgery, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City †Sleep Research Center, Taipei Medical University Hospital ‡Department of Ophthalmology, Taipei Medical University Hospital §Department of Ophthalmology, Taipei Medical University ∥School of Health Care Administration, Taipei Medical University ¶Graduate Institute of Life Science, National Defense Medical Center #Department of Internal Medicine, Cathay General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors: Shiu-Dong
authors: SD
authors: Chung
authors: Jau-Der
authors: JD
authors: Ho
authors: Herng-Ching
authors: HC
authors: Lin
authors: Li-Ting
authors: LT
authors: Kao
authors: Ming-Chieh
authors: MC
authors: Tsai
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D005902:Glaucoma, Open-Angle / Q000191:economics* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006296:Health Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007429:Intraocular Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult