© 2002 by the American Diabetes Association, Inc.
Comorbid Depression is Associated With Increased Health Care Use and Expenditures in Individuals With Diabetes
1 Department of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina
OBJECTIVEThis study ascertained the odds of diagnosed depression in individuals with diabetes and the relation between depression and health care use and expenditures. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODSFirst, we compared data from 825 adults with diabetes with that from 20,688 adults without diabetes using the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Second, in patients with diabetes, we compared depressed and nondepressed individuals to identify differences in health care use and expenditures. Third, we adjusted use and expenditure estimates for differences in age, sex, race/ethnicity, health insurance, and comorbidity with analysis of covariance. Finally, we used the Consumer Price Index to adjust expenditures for inflation and used SAS and SUDAAN software for statistical analyses. RESULTSIndividuals with diabetes were twice as likely as a comparable sample from the general U.S. population to have diagnosed depression (odds ratio 1.9, 95% CI 1.52.5). Younger adults (<65 years), women, and unmarried individuals with diabetes were more likely to have depression. Patients with diabetes and depression had higher ambulatory care use (12 vs. 7, P < 0.0001) and filled more prescriptions (43 vs. 21, P < 0.0001) than their counterparts without depression. Finally, among individuals with diabetes, total health care expenditures for individuals with depression was 4.5 times higher than that for individuals without depression ($247,000,000 vs. $55,000,000, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONSThe odds of depression are higher in individuals with diabetes than in those without diabetes. Depression in individuals with diabetes is associated with increased health care use and expenditures, even after adjusting for differences in age, sex, race/ethnicity, health insurance, and comorbidity.
Abbreviations: AHRQ, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality MEPS, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
Diabetes is a prevalent disease that causes significant morbidity and mortality and is associated with substantial health care costs in the U.S. (13). Depression is equally prevalent in the U.S.; it is estimated that 3% of men and 59% of women have clinical depression (47). Primary care physicians see most patients with diabetes (8), and previous work indicates that clinically significant depressive symptoms are highly prevalent in primary care patients (9). However, current studies suggest that comorbid depression is more prevalent in individuals with diabetes than in other primary care patients (10). Therefore, comorbid depression seems to be an important problem in patients with diabetes. There is evidence that when depression occurs in individuals with diabetes, it is associated with poor metabolic control, poor diet and adherence to the medication regimen, and decreased quality of life (1113). Among primary care patients, comorbid depression has been shown to increase health care costs and health services use (1421). It is unclear whether similar increases in health care costs and use are associated with depression among individuals with diabetes. A recent study addressing this question in individuals with diabetes (13) found that in those treated in a primary care setting, there was an association between severe depressive symptoms and poorer diet and adherence to medication, functional impairment, and higher health care costs. A major limitation was the nonrepresentative nature of the study sample. Most patients were white, employed, well-educated adults with health insurance coverage who all lived in the northwestern region of the country. Such a sample is not representative of the universe of individuals with diabetes in the U.S. (3). We conducted this study with a nationally representative sample of individuals with diabetes to provide estimates that generalize to a larger segment of the population of interest. The objectives of this study were as follows:
This study used data from the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) to determine the prevalence and health care use and expenditures associated with comorbid depression.
Data The medical provider component supplements and validates the household survey in addition to collecting data on all medical and pharmacy events at the person level. Diagnoses are based on ICD-9-Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes; office-based visits are based on Current Procedural Terminology, 4th Edition (CPT-4) codes; and prescription names, strength, and quantity dispensed are also collected as part of the medical provider component. The insurance component collects data on health insurance plans, and the nursing home component captures data on demographic characteristics, use of services, and health expenditures related to nursing home use (22,23).
Study subjects However, ICD-9-CM codes 300, 301, and 309 included other mental health diagnoses; therefore, we discussed the selection of an appropriate code for depression with AHRQ personnel. Both individuals we contacted are familiar with the use of MEPS depression codes for data analysis (personal communication with Nancy Krauss and Anne Elixhauser, AHRQ, February 2001). Based on their recommendations, we used ICD-9-CM code 311 to identify respondents with clinical depression. In addition, the preliminary analysis we conducted showed that for >70% of the individuals with depression in MEPS, the appropriate ICD-9-CM code was 311. Person level variables included age, sex, race/ethnicity, marital status, educational level, health insurance status, and income status. The incomes of respondents were reported as percentages of the federal poverty level. We used 125% of the federal poverty level as the cutoff and rated households with combined incomes <125% as poor and those with incomes >125% as not poor. We combined respondents self-reported physical and mental health into two categories: excellent, very good, and good were considered one category, and fair and poor were considered the second category. Further details on technical and programming information are available (22,23).
Adjustment for chronic illness
Health care use Medical provider visits included visits to physicians and nonphysicians, such as physician assistants, nurse practitioners, chiropractors, podiatrists, physical and occupational therapists, and social workers. Other nonphysician visits included visits to nurses, optometrists, psychologists, and technicians/other medical providers. Similarly, hospital outpatient department visits included visits to physician and nonphysician providers. An emergency department visit was defined as all visits made to the emergency department, including those visits that resulted in an inpatient stay. Hospital inpatient stay was defined as a hospital admission that resulted in at least a one-night stay before discharge for that hospitalization. Prescription use was defined as all prescribed medications purchased or otherwise obtained in 1996, including free samples. Because use data were skewed to the right, we performed base 10 log transformations and used the mean of the log-transformed data for statistical significance testing.
Health care expenditures Ambulatory expenditures included payments for office-based provider visits, payments for hospital outpatient visits, and payments for zero-night hospital stays. Facility expenses and direct provider expenses were included in payments for hospital outpatient visits and zero-night stays. Emergency department expenditures included both facility and direct provider expenses for emergency department visits. Expenses associated with emergency department visits that resulted in hospitalization were excluded because they were routinely included in the expense for that hospital stay. Expenditures for hospital stays included facility and direct expenses. Because zero-night hospital stays were classified as ambulatory visits, we excluded the expenses associated with those stays from the total expenses for hospital stays. Expenditures for prescriptions included only expenses for purchased medications and excluded the expenses associated with sample medications to reflect out-of-pocket payments and payments made by third-party payers. Other categories of use included vision aids and other medical equipment and services, such as ambulance services, orthopedic items, hearing devices, prostheses, bathroom aids, medical equipment, and disposable supplies. Although the MEPS did not provide use data for the use of vision aids and other medical equipment and services, data on expenditures were provided. We included these expenditures in our analysis because the use of these services may be indicative of the severity of diabetes, which may be related to depression in individuals with diabetes. Further details about medical conditions, use, and expenditures definitions and characteristics are available on-line (2325). Analogous to use data, expenditure data were skewed to the right, so we performed base 10 log transformations and used the mean of log-transformed expenditures for statistical significance testing. In addition, we used the Consumer Price Index (26) to adjust mean expenditures to reflect August 2001 dollar values.
Statistical analysis
We used Students t test and Then, we used analysis of covariance to determine differences in health care use and expenditures, adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, health insurance, and comorbidity. Statistical significance testing for differences in use and expenditures were performed on log 10-transformed values. Similarly, the mean use and expenditures presented in Tables 2 and 3 are the values of anti-log 10 of the mean log 10-transformed values of use and expenditures. All results were weighted to represent the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the U.S. with diabetes. The institutional review board of our institution approved this study.
Prevalence of depression In 1996, individuals with diabetes were 2.5 times more likely to have comorbid clinical depression than individuals without diabetes in the general population (odds ratio 2.5, 95% CI 1.93.4). After adjusting for baseline differences in age, sex, race/ethnicity, marital status, poverty status, and comorbidity, individuals with diabetes remained twice as likely as individuals without diabetes to have a clinical diagnosis of depression (1.9, 1.52.5).
Demographic and clinical characteristics of the study subjects
Mean age did not differ between the depressed and nondepressed groups (58.6 ±1.7 vs. 60.6 ±0.7 years, P=0.2856), but individuals with depression were more likely to be <65 years of age than those without depression (71 vs. 55%, P=0.011). There were higher proportions of women in the depressed group than in the nondepressed group (79 vs. 53%, P=0.0001). Of the individuals with diabetes, those with depression were more likely to be unmarried than those without depression (56 vs. 39%, P=0.009). Similarly, depressed patients with diabetes were more likely to report being in poor physical health (68 vs. 45%, P=0.002) and poor mental health (31 vs. 13%, P=0.002) than nondepressed patients with diabetes. There were no significant differences in race/ethnicity, level of education, number of comorbid conditions, health insurance status, and poverty level between the groups.
Health care use
Health care expenditures
This study had two major findings. First, individuals with diabetes were twice as likely to have clinical depression as a comparable sample from the general U.S. population. Second, individuals with diabetes and comorbid depression had higher health care use and expenditures than nondepressed individuals with diabetes, even after adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, health insurance, and comorbid conditions. The results of our study are similar to that of a recent meta-analysis, which found that the odds of depression in individuals with diabetes were twice that in individuals without diabetes in controlled studies (10). In addition, our findings support the observation of Anderson et al. (10) that odds ratios provide results that are more consistent across populations than prevalence estimates. Our unadjusted prevalence estimate initially suggested that individuals with diabetes were 2.5 times more likely to have clinical depression than individuals without diabetes. However, after adjusting for several covariates with multiple logistic regression, the odds ratio of clinical depression in individuals with diabetes decreased to 1.9. Future studies should consider these observations when designing or reporting depression estimates in individuals with diabetes. The characteristics of depressed individuals in this study were similar to those found in a study of 75,858 patients in which the prevalence of depression in primary care settings was estimated (9). Similar to the results of that study, we found that depressed individuals with diabetes were more likely to be <65 years of age, to be women, to be unmarried, and to report poor physical and mental health. Previous studies have reported increased health care use and expenditures in association with comorbid depression in the general population (1421) and among individuals with diabetes (13). The major difference between this study and earlier studies is our emphasis on categories of use and expenditures. Although cost of health care typically reflects the pattern of use, this is not always the case. Exploring the effect of different types of use on total expenditures helps identify cost drivers and provides some explanation for any observed increases in total expenditures. For example, even after adjusting for potential covariates, we found that ambulatory visits and use of prescription drugs were the major areas of difference in use between depressed and nondepressed individuals with diabetes. This may be an important starting point for generating hypotheses for future studies. In addition, the higher total health care expenditures found in this study are consistent with the results of two recent studies (13,21). The first study found that individuals with depressive symptoms, major depression, or substance abuse disorder within the previous 12 months had higher mean total health care costs than individuals without similar disorders (21). The second study, which was conducted in individuals with diabetes, found that depression increased total health care costs over a 6-month period (13). Therefore, our findings not only support these earlier studies but also add to the body of knowledge about the relationship between diabetes and depression. Specifically, we have shown that the increase in total health care expenditures for diabetes that is associated with comorbid depression is on the order of $192,000,000 per year. In addition, this study indicates that subgroups of individuals with diabetes, such as women, unmarried persons, younger adults (<65 years), and individuals who report poor physical or mental health, seem more likely to have depression. Whether identifying and treating depression in individuals with diabetes can eliminate these added expenditures is unknown and will need to be addressed in future studies. There are limitations to the interpretation of the results of this study. First, as in all observational studies, we cannot show causality, meaning that we cannot conclude that the increased health care use and expenditures observed in this study among depressed individuals with diabetes was due solely to depression. The increased health care use and expenditures observed in this study could potentially be due solely to diabetes, depression, or a combination of both diseases. Data on type of diabetes, complications of diabetes, duration of disease, course of clinical depression, and duration of treatment for depression are needed to prove or disprove these alternate hypotheses. In addition, prospective studies that allow for the study of the direction of the relationship between diabetes and depression will also be helpful to establish causality. Second, because our criteria for depression did not include all possible cases, our prevalence estimates may be lower than the true estimate. However, our use and cost calculations are likely to be reliable because there are no reasons to expect that the depression criteria used in our study had a nonrandom relationship with use or cost. Third, because our study sample was weighted to reflect the noninstitutionalized civilian U.S. population, our finding cannot be generalized beyond that population. Finally, our estimates for total health care expenditures for diabetes may differ from those found in previous economic studies (2) because of differences in perspectives and assumptions behind the different calculations. There are two major implications of our study. First, there may be benefit to screening a select population of adults with diabetes. Based on the results of this study, women, unmarried persons, persons <65 years of age, and individuals who report poor physical or mental health may benefit from screening because they seem to be at high risk for depression. Although a recent cost-utility study of depression screening in primary care did not recommend routine screening for depression and actually found such screening cost-ineffective, the authors acknowledged that one-time screening was cost-effective (29). A limitation of this cost-benefit study was that it focused on routine screening of primary care patients for depression without examining the benefit of screening high-risk patients. Therefore, until a cost-effectiveness analysis is performed to determine the benefit of screening for depression in high-risk patients with diabetes, it will be difficult not to recommend screening for these patients. It is now clear that screening alone is not adequate (30). Instead, there is a need to emphasize depression screening in high-risk patients as part of a comprehensive plan of care that should include aggressive treatment and appropriate follow-up. This is particularly important because of the prevalence, adverse consequences, and increased health care costs associated with depression. Second, the implications of the increased total health care expenditures associated with comorbid depression in individuals with diabetes remain unclear. There are at least two possible explanations. The increased expenditures associated with depression may be due solely to medical care for depression, meaning that increased detection of depression in this population may actually increase health care costs for diabetes. Alternatively, the increased expenditures may be due to possible adverse effects of depression on diabetes outcomes that result in increased costs of medical care. This alternative means that early detection and treatment of depression could potentially decrease total cost of diabetes care. Recent studies have even challenged the direction of the relationship between diabetes and depression (31,32). The questions raised by these authors are very important and should stimulate research on the true nature of the relationship between diabetes and depression. However, moving beyond our current level of understanding requires research that provides an acceptable causal explanation for the relationship between diabetes and depression. Therefore, there is need for epidemiologists, health services researchers, and basic scientists to collaborate to define the causal relationship between diabetes and depression. In conclusion, we have used nationally representative data to show that clinical depression is prevalent in individuals with diabetes and that depression in individuals with diabetes is associated with higher health care use and expenditures.
This study was supported, in part, by Grants 1K08HS11418-01 and 1P01-HS10871-01 from the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (to L.E.E.) and by Grant U50/CCU417281-02 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (to L.E.E., and D.Z.).
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Leonard E. Egede, MD, Medical University of South Carolina, Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, 326 Calhoun St., P.O. Box 250100, Charleston, SC 29401.E-mail: egedel{at}musc.edu. Received for publication 6 September 2001 and accepted in revised form 7 November 2001. The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A table elsewhere in this issue shows conventional and Système International (SI) units and conversion factors for many substances.
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