The financial burden and health care utilization patterns associated with amnestic mild cognitive impairment

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jalz.2016.08.009
• Publication Date: 2016-10-01T06:57:16Z
• Authors: Thanh G.N. Ton; Thomas DeLeire; Suepattra G. May; Ningqi Hou; Mahlet G. Tebeka; Er Chen; Joshua Chodosh
• Keywords: Aged, 80 and over; Male; Neuropsychological Tests; Patient Acceptance of Health Care; Severity of Illness Index; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; Cross-Sectional Studies; 0302 clinical medicine; Alzheimer Disease; Disease Progression; Humans; Cognitive Dysfunction; Female; Longitudinal Studies; Aged; Retrospective Studies

AbstractIntroductionIndividuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) are at elevated risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia.MethodsWith data from the Aging, Demographics, and Memory Study, we used the Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes classifications to conduct a cross‐sectional analysis assessing the relationship between cognitive state and various direct and indirect costs and health care utilization patterns.ResultsPatients with aMCI had less medical expenditures than patients with moderate and severe AD dementia (P < .001) and were also significantly less likely to have been hospitalized (P = .04) and admitted to nursing home (P < .001). Compared to individuals with normal cognition, patients with aMCI had significantly less household income (P = .018).DiscussionPatients with aMCI had lower medical expenditures than patients with AD dementia. Poor cognitive status was linearly associated with lower household income, higher medical expenditures, higher likelihood of nursing and home care services, and lower likelihood of outpatient visits.